


Sins of our Past

by LordGinger1



Category: Freeplay, Grand Theft Auto V, RWBY, Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF, Turnwood - Fandom
Genre: Alternate RWBY Meg and Ashley, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Graphic Description, Oral Sex, Sex, Slow Burn, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-31 20:16:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6486022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordGinger1/pseuds/LordGinger1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>RWBY are the newest crew in Los Santos but after a bungled heist they realise their going to need help to survive in the same realm as Fake AH and The Alpha Street Sinners(OC crew). But thankful they might have just the help they need.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first Fic please give me any and all feedback. Just started writing down random stuff my brain came up with when I was bored and before I knew it I'm 20000 words deep and only halfway through. Enjoy =)

Chapter 1: A meeting of fate  
“Come out with your hands up”  
“Shit, shit, shit.” Exclaimed Barbara as she looked over the counter of the gas station at the swarm of cops outside. Their flashing lights brightening the night.  
This was supposed to be a simple in and out stick up but it had all gone wrong. Less than 30 seconds after pulling her gun on the cashier and demanding the money from the register the cops had arrived outside.  
“Fucking cashier must have hit the silent alarm when I came in” She raged to herself “He was sure ready enough with that shotgun when they got here”. She looked at the body of the cashier next to her with outrage as she though how close he’d come to ending her budding crime career.  
“So are you going to do it, Blondie?” Questioned a new voice  
Startled Barbara turned her gun on the source of the voice in the store with her. (When did he get there?)  
Leaning up against the central isle of the store was a man calmly eating a packet of chips, “You didn’t check the store when you walked in. Sloppy” he drawled answering her unspoken question “Are you going to give yourself up?” He questioned again  
“No, especially now that I have a hostage” She growled pointing the gun at him and starting to move to get him between herself and the cops.  
The man chuckled “Do I look like hostage material to you?” His voice was deep and gravely with an Australian Accent she could almost feel the base in her chest as he spoke to her  
She actually looked the man over and realised he was right, standing six foot four without his spiky orange hair his face was all aviators and smirk with the remainder taken up by freckles, he wore a simple white shirt with black hoodie over it and black converse, a single ear bud was in his right ear had the cord trailed under his shirt but his most distinguishing feature was his neon orange pants, going off how his clothes fit he was well muscled and with his general cocksure swagger and arrogance that said “Yes I’m the most dangerous person in the room and I know it” He was undoubtable attractive and Barbara found herself oddly drawn to him.  
“No you’re not a hostage” She said eyes drinking him in “but I’m not gonna give up to the cops”  
“Good” He said “Spunky I like it” He dropped his chips and walked over to sit besides her, completely ignoring the cops calling him to “Step away from the fugitive”. His back to the cops but hidden from view he rolled his head to look at her. “Then how do you get out?” he asked, “the way I see it there’s 3, no wait 4 now cops using your car as cover”  
“I don’t know” she Admitted (Why was she talking to him, she should be getting out of here before the RWBY crew became the RWB crew) “Out the back, jack a car in the street and run?” she questioned glancing from the cops to him, what did she care about his approval?”   
“Without covering fire you wouldn’t make it to the back door, let alone the street and jack a car. You Blondie, need help” he said in a mockingly sweet tone.  
“Ohhh” she groaned seeing where this was going, “and you’re the one to help me I supose? I see where this is going, How much will it cost me?”   
Leaning forward so he was close enough she could smell the barbeque potato chips on his breath (She wanted to push him away but dare not take her eye off the cops) “Nothing” He said waving his empty hands in front of him, “Nothing at all, you’ve got spunk and I like that Blondie. So I’ll help you out because I’m a nice guy and that outfit doesn’t hurt your chances” He said eyeballing her copious amounts of exposed cleavage that was part of her brown and Yellow RWBY crew outfit.  
Moving her grip on her gun so her arm covered her chest and blocked his leering she felt her cheeks redden at his attention but growled “Pervert, you’re lucky I need you. So what’s the play?”  
“Easy, I cover you out the back door, then we go to my car and we escape from the cops! Plan done” he grinned over at her.  
“THATS NOT EVEN THE START OF A PLAN, I’D BE BETTER ON MY OWN” She exclaimed turning to face him and earning a few pot shots from the cops, she fired a few slugs into the crowd to make them duck behind their cars.  
“But it’s the best one you’ve got, besides with me driving in my car, the cops will never know what hit them” he said with absolute intoxicating confidence   
“Fine, what choice do I have” she conceded “Theres a gun in my jacket pocket you can use...”she started but saw he had already drawn his own gun. A large black heavily modded pistol, scrimshawed to be as much a work of art as a weapon of death, who was this guy to have such an awesome weapon?  
“On 3 make for the back door, I’ll be right behind you” he said suddenly serious. “and Blondie, try not to get shot, I’d hate to have to wash your blood out of my car” she looked at him but his tone and demeanour had shifted, the mocking was gone and he looked primed like a grenade with the pin pulled but hadn’t been thrown yet.   
“1”  
“2”  
“3”  
“Go” he roared springing to his feet and spaying a stream of rounds towards the cops from is pistol, but she was already running even before the cops started leaping to get anything solid between themselves and the bullet hose.  
She had just made it through the door when the first gas pump exploded, the shockwave shattering the glass of the store windows and triggering the rest of the pumps and cars to detonate as well igniting the cops who franticly tired to douse themselves.  
Barbara was mesmerised for a second by the savage beauty of the flaming destruction but couldn’t gaze long as the rushed through cackling and whooping to himself.  
“Get moving Blondie, You wanna die?” He chastised her as he grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the scene of blazing wreckage half dragging her the first few steps before she found herself and started to run herself following him through the alleyways until they came to his car.  
“You want to lose the cops in this” She exclaimed, starting in disbelief at the car so Orange is practically glowed in the dark  
“Will, lose the cops in this” he corrected “now get in and buckle up. I’m driving and it may get... bumpy”  
The sound of pursuing gunshots left little argument so Barbara lept in as bid and closed the door, he also climbed in but after starting the car stopped to play with the radio.  
“Leave the fucking radio we have to get out of here” she ordered.  
He merely let out a pleased noise as he settled on Los Santos rock radio and the intro the “black betty” began to play.  
“Let’s ride” he growled with relish as the car roared away from the cops and out of the alley as a smattering of bullets pinged of the cars armoured panels.  
“The armoured Kuruma, completely bulletproof including tires and windows faster than youd think as it’ll leave the cops in the dust and with all that armour and speed, a perfect battering ram” as he purred this he sped up to a police road block and rather that turn away or aim for the gap he targeted the left car and smashed straight through the car leaving a ruined chaise behind.  
“Come on Blondie, snap out of it! This car may be bulletproof but we still have to lose the cops, care to help shake them off our tail?” he said trying to rouse Barbara from the stunned stupor she had settled into. She was no stranger to violence, she had killed before. Many times but something about the way the cops had danced as they burned and now she was in the car with their cackling killer and for some reason not afraid.  
“Oh, yeah” she said snapping out of it and drawing her MicroSMG before trying to smash out the window with her elbow only to earn herself a bruised elbow.  
“Bulletproof AND elbow proof I should have specified” he chuckled as he rolled down the window for her to take her shots.  
Her first shot was to give him a filthy look then she started taking out cop car tired and drivers with accurate bursts of gunfire causing them to careen off course and into each other leaving a mass of wreckage behind them.  
“You’ve got a real talent for this” He said with a smile as he pulled onto the road running up the coast of los santos up towards the rich side of town. “Were nearly there, get rid of that chopper and I can lose them in the hills”.  
Barbara readjusted her aim up and let her bullets answer for her as she smashed the cockpit open in a hail of precise bullets that shredded the pilot and sent the copper tumbling behind the nearby buildings, before there was the distant boom of the chopper exploding.  
“Hold on blondie, were going off road” He said as he pulled a hard right off the freeway and into the hills behind los Santos.   
“See they are under strict orders that unless its super severe they can’t bring their squad cars up here, and believe it or not the cops in Los Santos do want to live so if they have an out they’ll take it” as he said this he launched himself off the top of hills then down the other side in a series of leaps and dips.  
Barbara was feeling motion sick but wouldn’t show that weakness to this psychopathic stranger and remained silent until he pulled up onto the peak of a hill to look down at the city spread out beneath them, she could even see the lights on the cop cars as they pulled away and gave up.  
Parking the car and calming down he looked out over the city and contemplated “Beautiful isn’t it. From up here it almost looks peaceful”. Barbara had to agree but after all that madness she had just been through getting misty eyes looking at some lights at night wasn’t on the top of her to do list.  
“Alright you, I want some answers” she said rounding on the hulking figure in the drivers seat while he looked at her with a bemused smile and responded “Funny, I wanted the same thing from you Blondie, oooh how about we go one at a time? I’ll answer your question then you answer mine? Back and forth Blondie, back and forth”  
“Don’t call me that” she huffed fed up with this “Blondie” business but he simply sighed and went “thats not a question, do I have to explain the rules of the game to you again? Besides what would you prefer I call you? Chestylaroo? Busty Saint Claire? Sheila? Madam? Queenie? Her Majesty armature mc wannabe gangster? Or how about Y? Yellow? Yang? Or Barbara Dunckleman?”  
Barbara stiffened as she heard him use her real name, How did he know it? She had made a whole false Identity to protect herself yet here was this complete stranger who knew her name and god knows what else. She needed to find out more.  
Recovering she said coolly “Yang or yellow is fine, now I believe it is my turn to ask a question, Who are you?”  
“Now you’re getting it Babs” he replied enthusiastically before continuing in a sterner tone “I can’t tell you my real name because that’s to secret but I’ll tell you what the press calls me, The Ginger”  
Barbara went cold inside as she heard this, The Ginger, Everyone had heard of The Ginger, second in command of the AS Sinners the only crew in recent memory that had been able to carve out a territory from Fake AH’s choke like grip on the city. A man whose record for violence and destruction rivalled that of even Mogar or The Vagabond, a man who was in the top 5 of LSPDs most wanted.  
Barbara had instinctively went for her gun for defence if nothing else but he was faster grabbing her wrist in a firm but not unkind or painful grip he leant over and calmly removed her gun with his other hand, she was acutely aware of how close they were at that moment. She was trapped and unarmed with one of the world’s most dangerous men so close that she could feel the heat from his skin.   
“Now, now Barbara thats not very nice. Trying to pull a gun on a man as he’s just saved your life and answered your questions, you were raised better than that” He mused sounding disappointed in her sudden act of aggression as he disarmed her.  
Knowing who she was dealing with now Barbara still refused to show weakness “So Ginger, I believed you asked a bunch of questions so its only fair I get to ask at least one more” she tried to sound tough and to her credit managed to keep her voice from breaking  
“Yes, well played, clever as well as spunky and a good shot. Your becoming quite intriguing Babs. I’ll let you have another question then”  
“How do you know my name?” she demanded wondering just how it was that she was known to one of the city’s most powerful psychopaths and not wanting to know what happened to those he found “Intriguing”.  
“All part of the job sweetie, you don’t survive a war with Fake AH without intelligence, so I keep track of all talent and potential enemies, And Babs your both”  
She had to stop herself swallowing the hard lump in her throat at this point because it seemed like her chanses of getting out of this car alive were shrinking by the minute.  
“My turn, why were you robbing that gas station on my crews turf?” he questioned suddenly losing his smile and turning serious “Are RWBY planning on making a move on our territory?”   
Barbara knew her life depended on her answer to this question so she kept it honest “We arn’t making a move its just between you guys anf Fake AH there is no where a criminal can make a living without stepping on toes or giving up independence, RWBY wount be another whipping boy like funhaus but a girls gotta eat and pay rent so I knocked over the gas station thinking I could get away before anyone noticed”  
Ginger nodded to himself and she hoped he was well enough informed to know the facts were true. RWBY was a new, very small crew of only 4 women and they had no territory of their own, their rule extended over the inside of their apartments and whatever place they were currently in, but they were making waves all be it small ones in the criminal underworld.  
“Makes sense, and relax Babs, I’m not going to hurt you so stop with that look like I’m fitting you for a noose. If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead” he said with finality.  
With a visible effort Barbra brought her breathing and pulse under control while adopting an aloof facial expression. He had just answered her next question of “are you going to kill me?” for her. Now to think of another one.  
“So what happens now? Do you run me out of your area? Make an example of me? Turn me in to the cops or give me to Fake AH as a peace offering” She tried to sound neutral, bored almost as if discussing the fate of a video game character she didn’t care about but inside she was taught with nervous energy.  
Ginger laughed and returned “all those fall under the category of hurting you and I already said I’m not going to do that. What happens now is you tell me where you want to go and I’ll drop you off there. No beating no example made just a friendly warning from me to you, don’t get caught pulling jobs like that on our ground”.  
“Its really that simple?” she enquired turning to face him.  
“That simple” he responded, his aviator mirrors staring back at her.  
At that moment as they looked at each other the radio turned over to “careless whisper” and ginger broke off the contact to change it. “Sorry about that, damn song could create sexual tension between a dog and a bag of grapes” he grumbled but Barbara couldn’t help but notice a slight blush coloring the skin of his cheeks.  
“So where to?” he said a little too quickly staring out the forward windshield and over the city, his blush fading as quickly as it had come.  
“that depends Mister know it all? Do you already know where I live or do I still have some secrets?” she asked in a pretend huff  
“Can’t say I have that particular piece of information but I could find out if you want” he said reaching into his pocket...  
“No no nonono” Barbra blurted out quickly to stop him, “that’s fine just take me to the chinese food place, the one at the very north of los Santos city proper, almost in the foothills?”  
“Yeah I know it” he said starting the car and rolling straight down the hill. “gonna get a big dish of beef chow ming?” he said in a Warren Zeavon impression before howling, Barbara knowing the reference joined in before they quickly fell into an easy silence that she used to study the famous “Lord Ginger” more closely.  
He had high cheekbones and a strong jaw, freckles by the hundreds and going off the color of his eyebrows either they or his hair was dyed, she could see nothing of his eyes as his glasses wrapped around to cover the sides of his head and she wondered why he even bothered wearing them? It was night. He was definitely muscular as even through his shirt and hoodie she could see muscle definition and he had a tattoo on the back of his right hand that held his gangs logo. However the most surprising thing to her was that he was so young, she wouldn’t have put him a day over 22 and the slight bum fluff besides his ears didn’t help him look older. Over all he was an impressive man but not what she had been expecting.  
“Your staring” he smirked without looking over at her and she cast her eyes away furiously blushing, she had been staring and had been caught both of which were embarrassing. For the rest of the ride she distracted herself by counting the hookers they drove past until after 7 prostitutes they arrived at their destination.  
“Well thanks” she said trying to get out of the car but found her arm once again in his firm grip as he bade her to wait a minute. “I guess you want the money since it was your turf and all” she conceded offering out the plastic bag containing the cash from the register at the gas station but he made no move to take it.  
“Keep it, use it to pay your rent or buy your poutine or whatever it is you wanted it for. I keep more than that in the glove box. No I stopped you cause I wanted to give you something’s, first here’s your gun back” he said dropping her micro SMG into the bag with the money “and a little something from me” he dropped a small black cell phone into the bag with the money and gun.  
“Thats a burner phone, use it to call me if you want it only has one number, but don’t waste your time tracing it you won’t get it back to me” with that he let go of her and she realised she was free to go but stayed a moment to ask “What? I rob on your turf and you give me a way to contact you? I thought you were going to kill me and now your helping me? Why?”  
“Cause I had fun tonight, the day to day gang business is so very dull. Drug deals, petty theft and races get dull after a while, and besides I’m a talent scout and you babs have got talent. I wanna see how your story plays out. But beware if you use that phone to call me in you will owe me a favour”  
She could tell he wasn’t telling the whole truth but at this point didn’t care anymore after such a hectic night so she got out of the car and after a final call of “Bye Yellow, It’s been real” he sped off into the night and left her holding the bag in the parking lot of the Chinese place exhausted and confused by the nights events.  
After getting food and walking home, being sure to go through alleys and back streets to avoid any tails, Barbara walked into her small flat in low class side of town. It wasn’t much but it was her domain and the one place in Los Santos she felt truly safe even if it was cluttered and she couldn’t find the source of that smell.  
As she fell asleep that night, before her dreams were plagued by vision of burning cops and a handsome smirking face in Aviators Barbara was sure of one thing. She was NEVER going to use that phone, no matter how much the Ginger invaded her thoughts, she didn’t need him. He was too much trouble, to big time, being caught with him could put her in the sights of Fake AH or Funhause or the cops she wasn’t ready for that yet but yet she still kept the phone for reasons she couldn’t quite justify to herself.


	2. When things go bad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The big heist, The pacific standard bank. Nothing could possibly go wrong right?

“We’ve got the building surrounded, release the hostages”  
“Shit, shit, shit” exclaimed Lindsay looking at the other three members of the RWBY crew “what are we going to do?”   
It had all been going smoothly, they had all been in position inside the pacific standard bank when Ashley (white) had cut the feed to the cameras, they’d all pulled on their masks before Barbara had incapacitated the security guards, Meg(Black) had barricaded the doors and Lindsay(Red) kept the crowd under control.  
They had shepherded the hostages into the back room and picked out the manager by his name tag to give them the vault codes before Black and Red had gone to collect the money into duffle bags they kept strapped across their backs while White stopped anyone trying to be a hero and Yellow kept a lookout up front focusing on signs of the police or any other clue to show they’d been made.  
It had all gone so smoothly until suddenly it wasn’t.  
“I think I’ve been spotted” came the muffled voice of their getaway driver over their earpieces. He was an outside hire they’d brought it for this job because they needed 4 in the bank and one in the car but RWBY only had 4 members.  
“Stay calm, we’ve had no signs of trouble” Lindsay replied levelly. As the leader of RWBY she was in charge of calling the shots and in this case comforting nervous drivers.  
“SHIT I HAVE BEEN SEEN, FUCK I GOTTA GO, SORRY GIRLS” the now panicking voice shouted over the sound of gun shots and squealing tires, Barbara could see their escape car launch out of a nearby alley and rocket past the bank as 4 unmarked cars left their parks and took off after it.   
He didn’t make it far as a hail or rounds from the cars and figures that suddenly emerged on the rooftops smashed into the car from all sides, obliterating their custom “Bullet proof” sedan in seconds. It careened off the road, into a wall then exploded leaving them truly trapped.  
“They must be using armour piercing rounds” informed Barbara to the other members of RWBY as she watched a swarm of police cars approach before backing away from the windows to take cover deeper into the building.  
“Shit, shit, shit” exclaimed Lindsay looking at the other three members of the RWBY crew “what are we going to do?”   
No one responded, they had no plan B, they’d pooled their money to be able to afford the car and equipment for plan A they hadn’t been able to afford a plan B in hindsight it was all remarkably foolish reflected Barbara, we’ve only ever done stick ups and minor drug deals now here we are robbing the biggest bank in town? Were not up to this, we were blinded by the money now were gonna be thrown in jail or worse.  
“We could release the hostages and run?” suggested Black half heartedly   
“Negotiate, make a deal, they don’t know who we are maybe we can get a sympathetic ear and avoid Jail time” quipped White wanting to believe her own lie   
It was then as Barbara was thinking furiously about what to do she remembered the phone in her pocket, the phone Ginger gave her. She’d taken it with her that morning for reasons she wasn’t quite sure of but now it might just be their saving grace if he could help them.  
“Wait I think I know someone who can help us, it’s a long shot but he may be able to get us out of here” informed Barbara towards Lindsay   
“Who?” asked Lindsay with suspicion and hope clear in her voice  
“A friend, please just trust me” pleaded Barbara thinking it better not to mention that their one shred of hope was also one of their deadliest rivals  
“Ok, I trust you Y, do it. I have to answer that” conceded Lindsay heading off to answer the bank phone that had begun to ring, probably the negotiator looking to start talks.  
Walking away from the group Barbara opened the phone and called the only saved number inside, It only rang once before a familiar voice said “Hello Yellow, your supposed to call after 3 days not 3 months. Talk about hard to get.”  
“Hey Ginger” She franticly whispered ignoring his quip “I kinda need your help, see I...”  
“You robbed the Pacific standard bank with nowhere near enough preparation, and now I guess you need my help to get out” he cut her off to say  
“Yes, how did you know?” she inquired bemused  
“Your on the news, 4 females in colour coded outfits, wasn’t hard to put together what was happening, add in a busted getaway car and a frantic phone call and it wasn’t hard to put together what was going down” he drawled  
“So will you help us?... Pleases?” she near begged  
“Only cause you asked so nicely” He said a smile in his voice “I’ll be there in 5-10, stay away from the windows and front doors and be ready to move, this is gonna be wild”  
“They have armour piercing rounds” she clarified hoping to be helpful  
“Not armour piercing enough for what I have in mind. I’ll message you right before I come in, Toodles” he hung up leaving Barbara relieved and concerned as to what was going to happen next.  
“So?” questioned Lindsay, drawing out the word. “Are we fucked or is your mystery man coming?”  
“He’s coming, will be here in 5 to 10, said to stay away from the front door” she said back  
“Thank god, but I still have no idea how we’re going to get out of this but help can’t hurt.” Reflected Lindsay more to herself than Barbara   
“What did the negotiator what?” asked Barbara trying to steer the conversation away from the dubious nature of her helper  
“Standard horse shit, “release the hostages and come out, 5 years max in minimum security” horse shit, If they don’t kill us we’ll never see the sun again, besides girls as pretty as us shouldn’t be in prison, the prettiest flowers grow outside.” Blustered Lindsay trying to lighten the mood  
“Still we need to stall for time until he get here, keep the negotiator talking” said Barbara thinking tactically.   
So thats what they did, they took it in turns staling and watching the cops who seemed content to sit back and let this play out, they knew the girls were trapped and so they had all the time in the world, no point losing men in a siege they could so easily avoid.  
Or so they thought, 8 minutes after their call Barbara received a text from the Gingers number that simply said   
“OH YEAH”  
At that moment the figures on the rooftops all went down, either falling behind the roof lining or for a few unfortunate souls, falling over the edge to the bone shattering ground below. They were immediately replaced and before Barbara could even focus on their oddly shaped silhouettes, white missile trails launched down into the awaiting sea of cop cars. The reaction was instant and devastating as an enormous chain reaction that left a wake of devastation 2 blocks wide.  
“WHAT THE FUCK” screamed 3 voices simultaneously but Barbara was fixated on the window as she noticed a bright red mass hurtling down the street towards them, smashing the burnt out cop cars aside and clearing a path to the front doors.  
“GET BACK” warned Barbara as the car spun a full 180 to slam back first into the front doors of the bank blasting through the wood and surrounding stone to come to a rest half in, half out the bank.  
The four of them approached the twin rear doors of what had resolved itself into an armoured truck painted bright red, weapons up, not knowing what to expect but could hear thumping inside the car that showed it to clearly to occupied.  
Moments later both back doors burst open to expose a man in a black coat and Guy Fawks mask, in fact he was dressed exactly like V from “V for vendetta”.  
“Good evening my dears, I believe you requested an extraction” he said with a bow and at that moment Barbara knew it was the Ginger, no mistaking that voice.  
“Yes, we did” Said Lindsay trying to regain control of the situation, “Thank you for the timely help, we were in deep shit”  
“My pleasure my dear” he said straightening and using extravagant hand gestures   
“Now if you wish to leave then, ALL ABOARD” he sang timing it to match with the song “Crazy Train” that just started playing over the car speakers.  
The 4 of them glanced at each other before Focusing on Barbara, whatever they had been expecting it hadn’t been this clearly insane man, Barbara who knew this had been her idea and that this plans success or failure was tied to her decided to take the lead and using the Gingers outstretched hand clambered into the truck. “Come on, it’s not like we have a choice” she reminded the others and they quickly relocated into the truck which Ginger drove back out of the whole of its own making. In all the extraction had taken less than 10 seconds.  
“Thanks for the pickup” Said Barbara from her seat in the back, the front seat was reserved for a MG  
“No problem, I was bored anyway, and call me V by the way” he said addressing the lot of them  
“The cops will be on us again real soon, Maryweather owed me a favour but they won’t tangle with the cops again, so were on our own for now, so If you have any questions nows the time” he continued   
“Why are you dressed like V?” asked Barbara eyeing his odd costume  
“Well I can’t exactly been seen helping the RWBY crew no can I? Especially now were on TV cause you just robbed the pacific standard. So when you called I pulled on this old cosplay from a convention long ago to disguise myself, besides you all go by letters. It seemed appropriate” he explained as the cops finally started to chase them  
“Who are you?” Asked Lindsay as she cracked open the rear door to start firing at the pursuing cops.  
“That I won’t say but know this to put yourself at ease, I have an interest in keeping you all alive” he clarified   
“I just want to say thank you hor helping us out V, we’d be gunners without you” Said Meg  
“Your very welcome Black” he replied a smile in his voice  
“I have a question, How the fuck are we supposed to escape the cops in a giant, slow red truck?” Chimed in Ashley as the amount of police chasing them increased to contain SWAT trucks in the sea of red and blue  
“Were not” he said simply but Ashley could interject continued “This was to get in and out of the bank, you said they had armour piercing rounds but you’d need a fucking tank shell to get through this armour... OH FUCK THATS A TANK, HOLD ON” roared V as he pulled a right so hard the truck spun out, throwing the unsecured women in the back hard against the front seats, while the tank fired its round into the back doors that were now facing them, miraculously the doors held with only one falling off and none of the blast reaching inside.  
The truck finally came to a stop with the front windscreen facing the street but the majority of the rear of the truck wedged into an alley way blocing of entry to the pursuing cops.  
“Perfect” said V sounding super chipper “Everyone ok back there”  
Muffled grunts and moans of varying degrees of pain greeted him from the back as he unbuckled and headed into the back after grabbing his MG from the passenger’s seat.  
“A few bruises but nothing major” came an eventual reply as well as noises of agreement from the others.  
“Splendid” he piped as he lifted one of the benches in the back of the truck and pulled out a rocket launcher. “It you want to keep it that way, I suggest we quickly make an exit, were not far from where we need to be so cover each other and head through the alleys. Our goal is the subway, stage 2 of the plan is waiting for us down there, Got it?”  
“Yes” they said in unison  
“Then Lets go... Wait one second” he interrupted himself before diving back into the truck to spite their bemused expressions, he emerged seconds later with his phone in hand “Left it on the Aux cord” he explained apologetically as he pushed past them to lead the way.  
Ashley started to berate him about “potentially killing us over a phone” but Barbara couldn’t help but laugh at normalcy of it in this insane situation.  
“Come on, keep up you two” he smiled back at them as he ran down the zigzagging Alleys of Los Santos, trying to make it to their destination before the cops reacquired them.  
“Left” cried Lindsay as she saw a swat van come barrelling down an entry to their left, the 4 women opened fire with their respective weapons a sniper for Lindsay, Shotgun for Barbara, Assault for Ashley and a SMG for Meg but the SWAT van was a match for their fire and continued through the fuselage until V dropped to one knee and fired his RGP into it.  
The result was instant, the van exploded and tried to flip but the alley was to narrow and it became wedged standing, blocking all access.  
“Keep moving, Just to the end of this one then two the right and were there” he cried as he continued to run down the Alley away from the flaming wreck with the women in tow  
“Down there” he he informed pointing to a subway entrance across the road, the cop’s weren’t there yet but as they set foot onto the foot path the first police cruisers came careening around the corner a few blocks away  
“Run for it, I’ll cover you” he cried firing his last rocket at the front most cruiser which exploded and crashed into the one behind it before dropping the now empty launcher to hold his MG 2 handed.  
RWB needing no more encouragement ran full sprint down into the subway but Barbara stopped at the top of the stairs to check on the Ginger.  
She saw him annihilate two more patrol cars before running towards the Subway and also saw something he didn’t, a 5th car was racing towards him with all intent to run him down.  
“Look out” she called raising her shotgun and firing at the driver’s side windshield. The window blew out in a spray of glass shards and blood as the car careened to the right and smashed into the front of a shop.  
The Ginger had crossed the road at this point and pulled Barbara into a rough, unexpected hug while whispering in her ear “Thanks, Babs” then he broke off the hug and dragged the bemused but secretly pleased Barbara down the stairs after him by the hand.  
They caught up to the others before they reached the platform and V took the lead again “Down here” he called jumping off the platform and onto the tracks and running into the tunnel “Train won’t be for another 10 minutes”.   
After a moment’s hesitation the sound of gunfire from the pursuing police convinced them to follow him down into the tunnel, he used that moment to drop something small and black onto the tracks before leading them down into the dark tunnel.   
“Look for a second tunnel on our right” he said as they ran down the tunnel and upon the first sign of gunfire behind them he pulled out a detonator and looking pack pressed the button detonating the sticky bomb he placed earlier and creating a wall of flame at the mouth of the tunnel to cover their escape.  
“There, I see it” called Meg from in the lead pointing into a divergent tunnel on their right, from there it was further down the tunnel, through one of many seemingly random doors into the tunnel, then down some stairs before finally emerging into a large damp room with water on the floor that was the centre for the storm water in this area of los Santos contained part 2 of V’s plan.  
5 motorbikes were waiting for them a coloured red, White, Blake and Yellow with a silver and black one off to the side. With the bikes were colours matching helmets and jackets that looked heavy duty.  
“Welcome to part 2 of the plan” declared V grandly. “Pick your bikes but first let me walk you through these, These are Lectro sports bikes, fully upgraded for acceleration and top speed with armour and bulletproof tires, fitted with nitro for a boost and something called the KERS system which I won’t get into the science of but basically braking gives you more boost. These jackets have been fitted with bullet proofing and will protect your skin if you come off but their packing some serious fire power so don’t go getting shot for fun. Likewise the helmets are bulletproof and that little box on the side is Bluetooth so we can keep in touch even if we get separated as long as we have our helmets on. Now tell me do you have a safe place outside of the city?”  
“Yes” said Lindsay “it’s at”  
“Don’t tell me” V interrupted “you lot meet up there, I’ll try to draw them away from you so you may not see me again once we leave here, don’t worry about me just get yourselves to safety. Any questions?”  
“Yeah, how do we get out of here” asked Ashley  
“Down that pipe” he said gesturing down a dark pipe with a few inches of water in it “It’ll take us to the canal then across it is the highway, there you head north, the heavy traffic will help keep the cops off you, main goal it to get out of the city”  
“Can’t we just wait here till the heat dies down?” asked Meg sheepishly  
No you just robbed one of the biggest banks in town, the heat won’t die down for weeks and they’ll find us down here. Right now the bank manager is talking to the mayor and their both about to tear the ass out of the chief of police so their gonna be VERY motivated to catch you. No we need to get you out of their jurisdiction up north”.  
“I have a question” said Barbara with a smirk “What are we waiting for?”   
“Love the attitude, suit up” he grinned looking at Barbara from behind his mask but speaking to everyone  
As Barbara pulled on her jacket she was glad that it was there to protect her exposed forearms but looking down at her shorts and far too much exposed leg she secretly wished he’d brought her some pants, as she did she watched him, he was already wearing a jacket but replaced his mask, hat and wig with a helmet, as he did there was a flash of his bright orange hair and at that moment she noticed she wasn’t the only one watching him, Meg and Lindsay were both also looking at him with a slight frown on Megs face and open curiosity on Lindsays.  
“Check, check, 1 2, 1 2 can you hear me?” asked V once all their helmets were on  
“Load and clear” came 4 replies as tested their Bluetooth headsets.  
“Cool remember the plan, once we reach the highway look out for yourself, meet at the allocated spot and I’ll try to draw them off you” reminded V  
“Now start em up and let’s do this” said V in a super pumped voice as his bike roared to life followed shortly after by 4 others as he roared away and even through the bike noise and helmet Barbara could hear Gingers Bike playing bat out of hell, which caused her to realise he was riding a silver backed phantom bike and made her wonder if this whole this was just an excuse for him to make a song reference.  
They roared down the tunnel leaving a spray of slimy water behind them but luckly the tunnel was wide enough for them to ride abreast before launching out of the tunnel and into the canal “Floor it, and nos up the other side to launch onto the highway, I’ll go first but then you all go ahead, I’ll bring up the rear to hold off the cops” instructed V as they rocketed down one side of the canal, V slowly pulled ahead before running up the incline and hitting the nos launched into the sky off the makeshift ramp before coming to land wheels down on the highway were he slowed to watch the others follow, to their credit they all managed to make the jump before zooming past him first Lindsay, then Ashley, then Meg and finally Barbara  
Satisfied V took off after them and slowly closed the gap until he was only a car length behind Barbara and waited for the inevitable pursuit  
He didn’t have to wait long as the cops were on them in moments first the helicopters then the cars and vans as they sought to bring them down, V started throwing more of those sticky bombs at the cops and detonating them to create a wall of destruction and wreckage to further slow the pursuing police, he was about to turn off left to draw away the cops when shit went down for the second time that day.  
“MEG” cried Barbara as she saw her close friend get hit in the back by a round from one of the helicopters and lose control of her bike. It all happened so fast that before she could process it she had passed her still friend and was further down the road.   
“JUST GO, I’LL GET HER” commanded The Ginger over their helmet line  
“But...”  
“NO BUTS, GET TO SAFTEY YELLOW, I”LL TAKE CARE OF HER” ordered the Ginger  
“Ok, but be safe” she replied meekly relenting nor because of his commanding tone but because of the true concern she could hear in his voice.  
Relucently she kept going weaving in between cars to distance herself from the still pursuing police while answering frantic questions from her other team mates  
“What Happened?”  
“Where’s Meg”  
“Is she ok”  
“Was it V?”  
“Did the cops get her?”  
“Please, let me speak” Barbara began silencing them with her mournful tone “Meg was hit in the back by a sniper shot, she crashed her bike, I was already to far away but V said he’d help her and we should just get to safety”  
“I’m not leaving Meg with that maniac, especially if she’s hurt” cried Ashley  
“It’s not like we can go back for her even if we wanted to” cut in the calmer voice of Lindsay “for now were going to have to trust this V guy to keep her safe while we escape, but if he so much as harms a hair on her head I’ll kick his balls into his throat”  
“Don’t worry, we can trust hi..” Barbara began to say but was cut off by a massive explosion behind her that threw many cars into the air in a massive fire ball. “I hope” she added quietly to herself  
“What was that?” screamed Ashley  
“None of our business because it doesn’t change the plan, we just gotta hope our girl’s alright and lose these cops at the hide out” answered the grim voice of Lindsay as she continued to out distance the cops, many of who had turned back to investigate the fireball.  
After that it was a simple matter to lose the last few police through a combination of traffic and running through the foothills of mount Chilliad, then they rendezvoused at their hideout a small house at the edge of a farm north of the mountains, there they regrouped and tended to their various wounds and dealings while impatiently waiting for their 4th to arrive but as the hours ticked away they became steadily more panicked.   
Where was she? The police hadn’t caught her or they’d be parading it all over the news so either shed got away with V or more morbidly shed been so burnt in that explosion they couldn’t identify or show her body. Or the alternative that might be even worse was that she had escaped but was now trapped in some sick game of torment, a plaything for the Ginger for his sick amusement.  
8 hours and hundreds of straight to voicemail calls on the phone the Ginger had given her as a way to contact him Barbara had had enough waiting and made to leave “I’m going to find her” she declared  
“Don’t be stupid protocol is to wait 24 hours, and besides your still in your heist clothes for Christ sake, you’d make it less than 10 minutes before the cops were busting you” said Lindsay with authority standing in front of the door but Barbara couldn’t take the stress of waiting any more  
“Meg where are you?” she howled to the sky falling to her knees and breaking down into tears, soon enough the other 2 joined her and the mourned what they were sure was the passing of what was basically their sister.


	3. Other side of the coin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where's Meg? What happened to the Ginger? Will they ever see the money again? Find out this time on Fan Fiction Z

“NO BUTS, GET TO SAFTEY YELLOW, I”LL TAKE CARE OF HER” he ordered as he turned his bikes front wheel hard to the left while leaning his weight so that the bike skidded sideways his knee a few inches from the ground as he came out of his slide now facing towards the prone form of Black.  
“Ok but be safe” came a meek reply from Barbara and he felt his determination to save Black and please Barbara grow at the frightened concern in her voice. He would save Black and he would not fail Barbara.  
He arrived back at Black in seconds to find 6 police moving to surround Blacks unmoving body under the spotlight of a low hanging chopper but at his approach they turned and reached for their guns in surprise, before they could shoot, before he had even stopped he opened fire on the cops spraying a stream of fire in a semicircle at head height decimating 5 of the 6 officers before they could react. The sith officer managed to get off a blast from his shot gun that hit the Ginger in the chest before he in turn was gunned down by the bike riding criminal.  
The shot took him in the right shoulder, chest and side of the helm but luckily his coat, vest and helmet were all bullet proof so even though it hurt like hell he survived the buckshot. Stepping off his now stationary bike he pulled out the last of his sticky bombs and with a good through and a decent amount of luck managed to stick one to the helicopter, he also threw them onto the stoped police cars so he was surrounded by a wide ring of explosives.  
Moving over to Black he crouched over the petite woman and with a muttering of “I hope this works” he spread out his bulletproof coat to cover both her and himself, she was so small compared to him that it was an easy thing to do, even if he did get shot in the back by the cop in the chopper as he did so, again it held, so looking down to cover his head he pushed the button and detonated the bombs.  
First came a concussive blast that buffered him hard and would have sent him flying had it not been coming from all around him, as it was the force pressed him downwards onto Black, cracking his helmet into hers and pressing him down onto her soft body, for a moment he worried that he would crush her but then the pressure subsided and was replaced by a wash of intense heat and flame that felt like he was being cooked alive, he could smell burning hair and leather but couldn’t see the source until the heat wash abated and he felt it was safe to stop covering Black and survey the situation.  
He first noticed that she was on fire, the black hair spilling from under her helmet was singed and slightly flaming, next thing he noticed was that HE was on fire, his jacket burning on the outside but it hadn’t worked through to the inside through the armour plates. Quickly he extinguished her and himself before looking out further to a scene of complete chaos and destruction.  
The road on both sides was completely blocked off by flames and twisted wreckage cars were panicking and crashing of their own accord police were present but couldn’t get close, of the helicopter there was no sign. With the flames and wreckage blocking the way for the moment at least he wasn’t going to get shot at so he turned his attention to his damsel in distress.  
She had been shot through the side, a clean hit, through and through with no organs hit if left untreated it could be a real issue but it wasn’t immediately life threatening, as for injuries from the crash he couldn’t see any but he’d need to do a full inspection to find them. But the real question was, How was he going to her an unconscious woman out of here on a motorcycle?  
Looking at what he had a plan quickly formed, she still had one of the duffle bags of cash strapped across her back so removing that from her he first carried her (she weighed nothing) over to the bike which had miraculously survived the explosion, though it had been knocked over and the paint scorched before propping her on it, he then settled himself behind her and loosening the strap on the duffle bag looped it over both of them so that it held her tight to his body, he tried to ignore how close she was and how her cute butt pressed up against him as he put her hands into his pockets before zipping up his pockets so her hands were secure and putting his legs in front of hers so he could hold them in place and still be in the grips, he finally threaded his hands under her arms and grabbed the handlebars to drive the bike then jiggled a bit to make sure she was secure before admitting he didn’t have time to change anything anyway. Looking forward he could easily see over her head as he was much taller than her, and he prepared to finally make good his escape from the ring of fire AND the police.  
He starts to accelerate, driving in circles to build up the speed he’s going to need to escape the ring of fire, the police had finally closed in and were on the opposite side of the flame wall firing through at him but luckily heat shimmer and flames were making him a harder target than they expected and the minimal amount of fire to find the mark was stopped by his armour.  
Finally getting up to speed the Ginger approached the concrete barrier at a shallow angle and using it as a ramp, he ran up the side and launched forward through the flames but over the wreckage to freedom. He landed roughly, Blacks head swinging back to smack against his chest and helmet, causing him to wish he had a way to secure her head but he couldn’t ponder it for long as the cops were immediately back on him again.  
But now was different, officers that had been pursuing the rest of RWBY were breaking off their pursuit to come back and trap him in a tightening noose of police, he knew he wouldn’t be able to avoid them coming from both directions so when he saw a break in the barrier he took it, oncoming traffic was better than being trapped and gunned down.  
Dodging and weaving through the oncoming he started to pull away from the ground cops as crashes and chaos took their toll but he knew there was no chance of getting the breathing room necessary to slip away while the choppers were on him, 2 new ones having taken up the pursuit at some point, yet he also couldn’t pull over to deal with them without being mowed down by the cruisers, nor could he outpace them and wait them out because they were still shooting at him and even 2 layers of bullet proofing would crack eventually.  
Deciding on a plan he moved to the edge of the highway and repeated his trick for jumping barriers to get off the highway and into the foot hills by the coast, knowing that would give him some breathing room from the cars but not the choppers he kept speeding over the rough terrain sticking to the trees where he could to make himself a hard target but he couldn’t shake them through driving alone so at the cusp of the next hill he brought his bike to a halt and remaining mounted so as not to disturb the unconscious woman strapped to him he levelled his AP pistol at the cockpit of the first chopper and unleashed with a hail of fire that obliterated the pilot and sent the bird tumbling to earth.  
He tried to take aim at the second one but he took to long and the sharpshooter inside fired a round that hit him in the arm and forced him to drop his weapon “Ah, FUCK” he swore in pain as he saw blood running out from under the cuff of his jacket, not trusting his arm to not give way under the recoil of more shots he chose to instead floor it and race away from the rapidly closing chopper and further out ground police.  
Knowing that taking a stand was no longer an option he headed back to the highway where he could gain more speed over the road than the grass, the cop cars had fallen back quite always with the traffic slowing them, los Santos drivers were never ones to pull over, but the remaining chopper was right on his heels and he honestly didn’t know how he was going to deal with it until he saw the bridge, or more importantly the chopper didn’t see it, the pilot and gunner were so focussed on getting him and avenging their fallen colleagues that they didn’t look up until it was too late and they had already smashed into the supports and exploded leaving the highway once again block by flaming wreckage behind The Gingers escape.  
After that it was a simple matter to avoid the ground police long enough to slip away into one of his secret garages, this one at the shores of the Alamo Sea it wasn’t much but it was secure and had a first aid kit so it would do, after disengaging himself he tried to contact the rest of RWBY but the Bluetooth on his helm had been shot out, probably by that damn shotgun blast, same one that had destroyed the phone he used to contact Barbara, the one he kept in his jacket pocket. Sighing and feeling exhausted he looked over to where he had left Meg lying on a couch minus her helmet and what he had discovered to be a wig of black hair revealing her pretty face and bright purple hair. Shed know where the rest of them would be and he had too get her back to them, so until she woke up there was nothing to do but see to their wounds and wait. 

Meg awoke groggily into a hazy state of consciousness, she looked up and saw a bare concrete ceiling rather that her own cream coloured one and wondered what was wrong with that before all at once she remembered flashes of what happened, Weaving through traffic on the fastest bike shed ever ridden, a sharp burning pain in her back then she had been thrown forward in her saddle and lost control, tumbling down the road as a voice in her ear cried out her name, cops closing in to take her away as all she could feel was pain, then just blackness.   
She bolted upright but was immediately knocked back down by a wave of nausea and sudden pain that assailed her from all sides but the sick realisation quickly set in, she’d been caught, she was going to jail to end up lesbian chow, her life was over, rolling onto her side she buried her face into the back of the musty couch and began to weep, “wait” she thought through her tears “if I was captured by the police then why am I on a couch? Shouldn’t I be in a cell or at least a hospital bed?”  
Then she felt a hand start to slowly stroke her arm and in her moment of panic as she realised she was not alone she heard a somewhat familiar voice say “shh, shh its gonna be ok” in a reassuring tone. Trying to control her panic, knowing that she was in no condition to fight, Meg stemmed her tears and slowly as to not aggravate her wounds, turned to face the source of the voice  
There looking down at her protectively was V, still wearing his costume save for the jacket and mask, instead he wore a pair of wrap around aviators that covered his eyes but the rest of the face was clear to see, bright red hair that was crushed and sweaty from being in a helmet, a strong jaw line, high cheekbones, minor stubble and heavy freckles along with dyed in eyebrows it was a handsome face and with a start she realised one she already knew.  
“You’re the Ginger” she blurted out in surprise  
He smirked and sat in a chair opposite her as he said “At your service” he said in a friendly manner “funny you know that, I’ve never had a mug shot, most people know of me but not many know my face well enough to recognise me but you do, clever girl”  
“I like to know about all the major players in Los Santos” she said gingerly sitting up against the armrest of the couch to try and meet his eye level, as she did though she saw him avert his gaze and quickly realised that her blanket had slipped and exposed that she was topless  
She quickly pulled up the blanket, which smelled like burnt leather and gunpowder because it was she noticed the jacket he’d been wearing, to cover herself and said in a bluster “Where is my shirt?”  
“I sort of had to remove it to deal with your wounds, it was all blood stained and torn, I could go fetch it for you, but its little more than a rag now, same with the wig it got a bit burned up” he said apologetically and she saw a slight redness creep into his cheeks from embarrassment  
Letting out a deep sigh and feeling pure exhaustion that overwhelmed the rest of her frantic emotions Megs wanted nothing more than to just to to sleep in her bed, far away from this madness, but yet she knew she couldn’t so resolved to make the most of the situation and find out what she could.  
“never mind the shirt, please tell me everything that happened after I was shot” she asked flatly.  
“Ok” he said with a shrug that revealed a bandage trailing off under his blood stained sleeve, and for the first time she thought that maybe she hadn’t been the only one injured, guiltily she thought of her friends and crew members, that they hadn’t been the first thing she asked about left her feeling ashamed  
“Are the others alright?” she asked in a shrill tone, her thoughts tumbling out of her mouth as she had them “Oh god their dead aren’t they, why else would you be the one looking after me, of god no, why? I knew this was a bad idea” she burbled as she started to cry again, it all made to much sense.  
“Their fine as far as I can tell” he said, cutting her out of her shame spiral and once again moving to awkwardly try to comfort her, clearly he didn’t have a lot of experience with hysterical women or emotion in general for that matter.   
“I lost contact with them cause my coms got shot out when I saved you but aside from that there’s been no word of them on the news” he said gesturing to a small tv across the garage from her couch with a stool in front of it “if they were caught or killed they’d be all over as trophies for the media. Now how about we save the questions till after I tell you what happened while you were knocked out”  
Meg nodded her consent then listened as he told her about how he’d picked her up as he was closest then a wild yarn about explosions car chases and helicopters that she believed was half made up before he’d pulled into a safe garage “somewhere north of Los Santos”. Then being unable to contact the rest of RWBY he’d set about making sure she’d be ok.   
“Gonna guess you were knocked out when your brain hit the inside of your skull but aside from that your heads fine thank god, you’ve got some whiplash, a fractured left wrist, twisted ankle and 2 broken ribs, luckily the bullet that hit you went through clean, hit no organs but it did break your ribs, in total you’re a very lucky girl” he finished looking up at her from the mental list he’d been reading and smiling  
“And if even half of what you told me about our escape is true then you’re a very lucky boy” she countered defensively which caused him to laugh   
“I guess, we make quite a pair then” he said as the smile slowly left his face “But in all seriousness we need to contact your crew, its been 10 hours, they probably think your dead and blaming me for it”  
“Oh yeah” she said reaching into her pocket with her good hand, and removing the jumbled mess of broken glass and components that had once been her phone “Guess it must have happened in the crash”  
He let out a long sigh before responding “Well I guess I’m just going to have to drive you to this safe house then, where is it?”  
“Oh that’s not necessary, I’ll get a taxi or a bus or highjack something, no need to bother yourself” she rushed quickly not wanting to tell the second in command of a rival crew about their secret hideout  
“that’s not gonna happen” he said sounding tired yet stern “you’ve got a fractured wrist and twisted ankle so I doubt your stealing anything the morphine is helping now but it will wear off soon, You Are Hurt, besides your still mostly in your heist outfit you try to get a taxi and its straight to jail, and as much as I hate to go there an injured topless beautiful woman on her own at night around here would be praying for the cops to get to her first, no I’ll take you to the rest of RWBY”  
“But it’s a secret hide out, I can’t go telling other gangsters about it” she mumbled meekly, chastised and accepting his logic even against her own will.  
“Tell you what” he said more gently “I’ll trade you, you tell me where your secret hideout is and I’ll tell you where we are right now, this little hide out of mine”  
Realising this was as good as she could hope to get Meg nodded her approval before immediacy regretting it as a lance of pain shot up her neck, he noticed this and seemed concerned.  
“Here let me carry you to the car” he offered bending to scoop her jacket and all from the couch despite her protests and mentioning that he himself had been shot in the same arm that was now carrying her bridal style across the room, still she couldn’t help but feel a minor thrill as he did it, his arms were solid and she could feel hard muscle under his shirt pressing against her side, he was so massive compared to her that she felt safe in his arms, almost childlike except for the slight rush that always came with seeing a strong man be a man.  
As they passed them Meg noticed that half the vehicles in this garage were boats or jet skis, clearly they were near the water but then they were stopped next to a fancy bright orange car. She didn’t know what it was but it looked like a Rolls Royce and as he softly deposited her into the passenger’s seat she felt that it lived up to the expectation of luxury the outside promised, the seats were so deep and cushioned they hardly bothered her injuries at all.  
“I hate to be the one to ask this” she started as he got into the driver’s seat after having thrown her duffle bag of cash from the robbery into the boot “but if we’re not trying to draw attention then is an orange car really the right choice?”  
“Yes, because it is exactly conspicuous, police see this car and they KNOW it belongs to famous criminal Lord Ginger who is also not who their looking for, their looking for these newcomers V and Black, they see this car go by with me and a beautiful purple haired woman in the front they won’t think twice, can’t be us who did it cause they know us. Pretty clever eh?” he finished looking at her expectantly and she did have to admit there was some logic to his plan  
“Ok I’ll admit that’s pretty clever” she said using her good hand to do up her seatbelt   
“I thought so” me said smugly while starting the car and making all the necessary preparations to drive before turning to her to ask the fateful question “So where are we going?”  
Meg hesitated for a moment before letting out another sigh, she was in no position to argue with him but still this was one of the biggest secrets she had and she was about to share it with a man she barely knew, a man who was part of a rival gang, literally the enemy, but then again he had saved her life, and Barbara trusted him so she eventually relented and told him where to go  
“Just please promise me we’ll never find a bunch of A.S Sinners there waiting to kill us” she finished with  
He smirked before placing his left hand over his heart and saying “I promise that no ASShole shall ever go there without express permission from a member of RWBY, nor shall I tell anyone else of its whereabouts”  
Meg raised her eyebrows a bit at the casual use of the street slur for his own crew but it didn’t seem like it bothered him. Indeed he seemed to relish the name enjoying the way it sounded.  
His promise did help to put aside her fears even if it wasn’t worth much but she still told him about the farm house on the other side of mount Chiliad that was their emergency hideout.   
“Hmm, rural away from main population centres but not so distant that it would draw attention like a cabin in the woods, not bad, not bad at all. A good pick” he said with genuine appreciation as he started out of the garage   
“Thanks we thought so” she responded distractedly as she memorised everything she could about the surrounding landscape so she could know where this mysterious hideout of his was, and it was on the outside little more than a large shed on the shores of the Alamo sea, to the right shone a collection of light that would have to be Sandy shores. Memorising a few landmarks so she was sure she could find this place again she broke off her observation feeling truly drained.  
The Ginger must have noticed this as he said in a calm fatherly voice “Get some sleep if you want, its gonna take a while cause I don’t wanna break the traffic laws right now, I’ll drive smoothly so I won’t jostle your injuries”  
A retort died on her tongue as exhaustion and morphine overcame her and dragged her down into the black dreamless sleep of the truly exhausted, but the last thing she though before the darkness came was that the Ginger really was much younger than she expected. Then her head lolled to the side and she knew no more.

Pain awoke her, an aching pain in her neck, ankle and wrist with a shooting pain in her ribs gasping herself to consciousness she let out a groan as fresh waves of agony assailed her, Why? It hadn’t been this bad earlier.  
“Ah, you’re awake. Sorry you were due for another hit of morphine but I didn’t want to wake you, let me pull over and I’ll give you a dose” came the apologetic voice from the Ginger as he maundered the car off the road and onto the grass.  
Looking around while he went to get the med kit out of the boot Meg saw that it was early morning and they were on the costal freeway but far enough up that the barriers had stopped that meant they had to be behind mount Chiliad and not far from the safe house, she considered telling him not to bother until they were at the safe house but the act of drawing in breath to phrase the words caused her rib bones to grind together, forcing any doubt from her mind. She NEEDED more painkillers  
With her permission he injected her with more morphine and the relief was near instant, the pain didn’t vanish but receded to a dull ache that she could deal with, “That’s better right Meg” he said and she immediately stiffened  
“How do you know my name?” she blurted out, had Barbara told him?  
“You’re not the only one who likes to know the players in Los Santos” he said with a smile “I’ve read your file and that of your crew mates, you’ve had my attention for a while”  
“My file? What file? What else do you know about me?” she said unsure what to make of this new development  
“Everyone has a file if you know where to look, as for what I know its mostly basic stuff, name, address, known aliases and alliances, I know that you arrived in LS a year ago and before that Meg Turney seems to cease to exist”  
Good at least he didn’t know about Liberty city then, she silently thanked whatever gods there were for that secret.  
“What do you know about the others?” she queried  
“Roughly the same, but we can play 20 questions later, were nearly here and we need to be prepared, it’s been 12 hours without contact so they’re going to be pretty worried about you, I’ll carry you to the door so you don’t have to walk on that ankle and hopefully if they see you first they won’t rip me apart immediately” he said  
“Ok but you’ve gotta answer my questions later” she demanded  
“I really don’t but I’ll humour you” he said with a grin as he brought the car to a halt


	4. Deal with the Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Questions are asked and a deal struck

Knock, Knock, Knock  
Lindsay was the first to respond the room she’d been sleeping in being closest to the front door. It had been agreed after much crying that they were going to rest and recuperate before searching for Meg in the morning. She wasn’t wearing much more that her shirt an underwear as they hadn’t thought far enough ahead to stock the safe house with a change of clothes and her heist gear wasn’t the most comfortable thing to sleep in, this never occurred to her as a problem until she open the front door.  
“Hey Lindsay” Said Meg with a meek pained smile from her position in the arms of who Lindsay guessed was V  
“MEG!” she exclaimed leaping forward in an attempt to wrap her freshly revived friend in a big hug, but V moved to quickly and step back out of range.  
“Ah, not so rough” he warned “She’s badly hurt, is there a chair or a bed I can set her down in?”  
“Ah yeah, there’s a roo..” she started but was cut off as the other two awoken by her cry rushed into the room  
“MEG” they called in unison rushing to embrace their injured friend only to be stopped in turn by Lindsay who explained about her injuries  
“Over here, there’s a bed for her in this room” informed Lindsay directing him to take her to a smallish bedroom where a utilitarian cot was waiting.  
“I’ll have to do” he said as he gently lowered her onto the bed, the other women leaning over his shoulder to get a better look at what had happened to their dear friend.  
He backed off into one of the corners of the room as the women had their reunion, there was much gentle hugging, laughter and a few tears before a literal torrent of questions were thrown at Meg.  
“What Happened?”  
“Are you alright?”  
“Where have you been?”  
“We thought you were dead”  
“What are you lieing under?”  
“where’s your shirt?”  
“Did HE do any of this to you?”  
The last question had come from Ashley but no one paid it any attention, instead Barbara seeing Meg was already under to much of a barrage from the other two to answer any of her questions instead snuck away to join the Ginger in the corner.  
“Thank you” she said with genuine sincerity “You got her out alive, I don’t know how you did it but you did it”  
She pulled him into a hug wrapping her arms around his ribs as he was about a foot taller than her, she felt him wince under her arms before returning her hug but in that time it occurred to her that in the entire fluster about Meg no one had asked if he was alright  
Pulling back a bit to look up into his glasses she asked “Are you ok? Did they hurt you at all?”  
He shrugged and smiled down at her “A few bruises, my vest and jacket got the most of it, though they did manage to give me a nice souvenir” he said gesturing to his right arm where there was a blood soaked bandage around his fore arm.   
“Oh my god, doesn’t that hurt?” she exclaimed breaking off the hug to examine his arm  
“Nah, pain and I can to an understanding a long time ago. This is just a mozzie bite” he said dismissively   
“Mozzie?” she asked confused   
“Mosquito” he clarified “damn Mericas and your lack of nicknames”  
“I’m Canadian, thank you” she said with mock indignity  
“I know” he said with a playful smile  
At that moment Lindsay turned to them and said “if you two are done condoling I’d like to know EVERYTHING what happened between getting on the bikes and now”  
“Ok I’ll tell you but its going to be a long story so I recommend getting a chair and perhaps a blanket of more clothes because this view is very distracting right now.  
Ashley blushed deeply and scurried away quickly to find some covering while Barbara and Lindsay merely shrugged and when about carrying out his instructions at a more casual pace. It wasn’t long before he settled himself down into a recliner he dragged over to the corner so he could face the bed along with the 3 women on chairs around it, now shrouded in a array of bedding to keep themselves warm, and safe from his roving eyes.  
He started telling them the story from when he had parted ways from Barbara and continued up until he had knocked on their including the address of the garage he had taken her to and the uneventful drive to the house, in all the story took the better part of an hour to tell as they kept interrupting him with questions that he mostly answered.  
“So let me get this straight you are The Ginger? Second in command of the Alpha street Sinners?” asked Lindsay shooting a worried glance to Barbara   
“In the flesh” he replied mimicking a bow  
“And you helped us a rival gang out of there cause you “felt like it”” she continued  
“Little bit more to it than that but basically yeah” he responded with a shrug  
“And Barbara knows you how?” accused Lindsay  
“She was in a jam and I helped her out then, in hind sight this is beginning to become a habit of hers” he said with a smile  
“Where’s the money bag?” she questioned  
“Still in the car, I’ll bring it in when this little interrogation is over” he grinned   
“Ok last question hot shot, what happens now?” Said Lindsay sounding tiered now that the excitement was settling down   
“Right now, I’m going to have a shower, then we have to get you girls some new clothes, cops are gonna be looking out for those outfits like hawks, and I would recommend avoiding Los Santos city for a few weeks, you kicked the hornets’ nest it needs time to settle down. Beyond that you need to start thinking about the bigger picture, you just robbed the pacific standard bank, that is a mark of status among criminals, few crews have ever pulled it off, you just rocketed yourselves into the big leagues, with that comes respect but also new dangers, everyone is gonna want a piece of you and as is TBH I don’t think you’re up to it” he explained but was cut off by outraged out cries from the women in front of him  
“Bring em on” roared Babs  
“We can take on anyone” exclaimed Ashley  
“Theres nothing we can’t do if we work together” added Lindsay  
“ENOUGH” bellowed the Ginger silencing them with a furious word. Visibly calming he continued “I’ve seen what you can do and the simple truth is you WON’T survive this new attention, your now in the sights of Fake AH and my own group of ASSholes, you can’t take them on, I saw you all in the field today and the truth is it was amateurish, you made mistakes, had no backups, missed shots, didn’t notice important details, hell if it wasn’t for me you’d be in jail or worse right now, but what I also saw was allot of raw talent, you’ve got potential it’s just you don’t have any of the experience or training you’re going to need to survive at this new level”  
“So what? We just give up and die?” said Ashley sullenly   
“If you’d let me finish I’ll tell you what you do, you get that experience, that training, I’ll teach you over these next few weeks while Los Santos is to hot and Meg is to hurt, I’ll train you in how to effectively run as a gang so when they come for you, and they will come, you will be able to hold them off and prove you deserve your spot at the top” he finished   
“And I suppose you’ll want to be paid for this” said Lindsay thinking she was onto his game  
“No” he said flatly “Honestly I’m doing this for the fun of it, people are so afraid of me these days nothing ever goes wrong, the car chases have turned into surrenders, drug deals never go wrong, aside from the rare dust up with Fake AH its boring as hell. But yesterday was the most fun I’ve had in a long time, it was a rush and I get the feeling that sticking with you I’m gonna have allot more fun”  
“Besides as I said earlier, I have an interest in keeping you alive” as he said it even though his glasses were completely opaque Barbara had the distinct feeling that he glanced at her   
“You expect us to believe you’d do this grand gesture selflessly? What’s your game Ginger?” accused Ashley  
He just shrugged and countered “whether you believe it or not it’s the truth”  
“It’s certainly a tempting offer and one we have to talk over as a team” interjected Lindsay before Ashley could start again  
Taking the hint The Ginger stood and said “well I need a shower anyway” before exiting the room.  
They waited in silence until they could hear the sound of running water before Ashley started  
“You can’t seriously be considering this? He’s THE GINGER, he’s our enemy, he’ll kill us”  
“HE saved our lives today, we were fucked in that bank, if he was our enemy he would of left us there” countered Barbara   
“Maybe that was a long con, what if he’s trying to gain our trust, you saw the way he was learning at us, what if he wants to rape us?” Ashley was beginning to sound somewhat panicked as horrible images flashed through her mind   
“I was unconscious with him for 8 hours today and he did nothing but tend my wounds, I would be dead if it wasn’t for him, weird though it may be I think we can trust him, besides nudity seems to make him uncomfortable more than anything” Meg added from her position on the bed  
“But, but...” continued Ashley and the debate raged until Lindsay silenced them all.  
“Enough, this isn’t about trust, I believe him about the heat that’s going to come for us now and after seeing one of these “Big league”(she said in air quotes) criminals in action I don’t believe we could survive them, so like it or not, we Need this training of his, but that doesn’t mean we tell him anything, treat him like any other outsider brought in for a job, he’s an ally but only to a point. Everyone agree on that?”  
There was some muttering but they all agreed that this was the best plan they had at the moment.  
In the lull that followed they realised that the sound of running water had stopped at some point during their bickering  
“Lord Ginger” called Lindsay  
After a few seconds the door was pulled open and the Ginger walked in now dressed in nothing but a towel, his ever present aviators and holding a duffle bag.  
There was a second’s pause as the 4 women took a moment to appreciate the Adonis that stood before them. He was muscled in a way they put stone carvings to shame, his torso was perfectly formed and almost pale enough that the many scares that were layered across it could blend in but not quite, he had his crew emblem tattooed onto his left peck and the Flying Hellfish logo tattooed onto his right bicep, some hair on his chest confirmed that he was a natural ginger but all this was marred by an enormous matt of bruises over the right side of his chest.   
“You took long enough I went and got the money from the car” he said somewhat self consciously as he threw the bag onto the floor between the women, as it hit the ground the thump snapped them out of it.  
“Thank you” began Lindsay “we have talked it over and we will accept your training but know this, IF this is some form trap, I will personally rip your balls off before it catches us”  
“Perish the thought but you’ve got the right attitude” he said with another grin  
“So what do we do now?” asked Meg from her perch on the bed  
“Well now I need to go get you some clothes because in those heist outfits you’ll be recognised in seconds, then unless no one here is skilled enough at medicine to take care of Meg, I’m going home because I haven’t slept in over 24 hours. Then we’ll start training at 8am tomorrow.” He said a tint of exhaustion creeping into his voice  
“I know some things about playing doctor” admitted Ashley “but shouldn’t we take her to a hospital? What if she had internal injuries?”  
“She doesn’t” he said bluntly “and DO NOT go to a hospital, again you just pulled off a major crime and worse the police know at least one of you was injured, we criminals might treat the hospitals as a neutral safe zone but they don’t, try to take her in they’ll take her down in 5 minutes flat”  
“Ok, we do have some medical supplies here that will keep her for now”  
“good, now if there are no further objections I’ll go get y’all some clothes” he said turning to leave and showing them his back, it was just as muscled as the front but even more bruised, it was possible to see individual bullet impacts in the bruising of his flesh, these bruises tried and failed to obscure a full back tattoo of the grim reaper centred around a pair of names and numbers.  
“Won’t you be recognised?” came the questioning voice of Barbara stopping him before he could walk out the door  
“Yes, but as the Ginger, not as V so they won’t come after me for the moment” he said before staggering out the door and leaving them  
Within the hour he’d returned with 4 simple colour coded shirts and 4 pairs of tracksuit pants or as he called them “tracki dacks”.   
“There now you’ll be harder to recognise, want something else go buy it yourself, I’ll see you at 8am tomorrow to start your training but for now I need to rest” he’d explained the exhaustion he must be feeling now prevalent in his demeanour, then he chucked something over to Meg still on her bed before leaving  
“Whats that?” asked Barbara  
“It’s a new phone” said Meg pleased “And it already has a contact” she extended the phone out to show Barbara a single contact that said “Lord Ginger” and a phone number.  
“Thats great” came her reply but she couldn’t help feel a little jealous that Meg now had his number too, but what did she have to worry about, Meg already had a boyfriend.


	5. Eye of the Ginger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TRAINING MONTAGE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just realised I have yet to put a pun in this work. I must fix that

“Focus”  
The command came from the Ginger where he was standing in his combat stance about 5 feet away wearing simple grey track suit pants and an orange T-shirt. Barbara was mimicking the same stance and outfit except with a yellow T-shirt and trying to determine where the attack would come from this time.  
In the end she decided to go on the offensive, throwing a punch towards his head as a feint to distract from the real blow heading towards his stomach, he read the bluff and blocked the real attack before trying to catch her wrist an pull her off balance, a week ago that would have had her flat on the mat but now she was smarter and pulled back out of his reach.   
They stayed that distance circling each other until this time the Ginger engaged with a sweep of the leg to try knock her over, she stepped back out of the kick only to be greeted by a fist to the stomach she hadn’t seen coming, she gasped but threw her head to the back an left to avoid the uppercut she was sure was coming next but instead felt a firm grip on her right ankle before with an impressive show of strength he lifted her off her feet one handed and forced her back first onto the matt.  
The breath knocked out of her there was little she could do to stop him from mounting her and pinning her in place his fist raised to deliver the finishing blow, except it never came, instead he said “Your learning quick, a few weeks ago our matches lasted nowhere near this long” before getting off her and offering her a hand  
“I’ve had a good teacher” she said as she grasped his hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet, both of them were right of course she had learnt allot in the last few weeks and he had been a good teacher.  
At their first lesson with the Ginger the four of them had been asked what their specialties were and he’d then started training them in the specialities because “We don’t have enough time to teach everyone everything”.   
He began tutoring Lindsay in sniping, strategy and command, Barbara in gunplay of all kinds medium to close range as well as in close combat, Ashley was being trained in Medicine as well as assult and high rate of fire weapons and Meg who was still injured learned more about hacking, technology and the day to day running’s of a gang as the Ginger had discovered to his surprise Meg was a non-combatant.  
“Wait, she doesn’t fight? Like at all?”  
“Thats right”  
“But I saw her shooting at the Pacific standard job”  
“Blanks, we just needed her for that one because we needed 4 people on the inside, Meg as never killed anyone”  
“Huh, I guess there’s still stuff I can teach you, besides you’re not firing any rocket launchers in the state you’re in” and that had been an end to it.  
“Again” he called moving to stand in his ready position, but Barbara didn’t move from where she was standing, arms crossed. In the few weeks they would have had over a 100 bouts and although she had been improving slowly she was still unhappy she had never beaten him.  
“No, I want to learn something new” She snapped “Getting tossed around like last week’s newspaper isn’t helping me become a master criminal”  
A single eyebrow raised above his glasses quizzically at her sudden mood shift but all he said was “Ok, how about I give you some advice, something more useful than the moves and techniques I’ve been teaching you, even more important than reading your opponent, moving out of harm’s way and reacting to their threat with your own force, and that is that fight aren’t always won by who is bigger or stronger or better trained, but by doing something the other guy doesn’t expect”  
“You expect me to hear some new advice and go back to being your punching bag, I want something more, what’s behind those glasses maybe?” It had become something of a game between the girls to try and discover more things about the Ginger because besides the first night they had not managed to find out any more about him, even with research and the police records, ATM there was $50 to the person who discovered the first new fact, it was nothing since they each had just made over a million with their bank heist but still Barbara wanted the cash AND bragging rights.  
He once again cocked an eyebrow before smirking and walking over to the speaker in the corner “Tell you what, he drawled as The Final Countdown started to play “Last match of the day, you wanna know what’s behind these glasses, come get em”  
He was back to his ready stance and Barbara moved to face him knowing that even if she didn’t win this was going to be the last one of the day.  
Trying to end it quickly she snapped out with her right fist aiming for his face, it was a simple hit and one he easily predicted but rather than dodge or block the incoming strike he grabbed her wrist and spinning wrenched her over his shoulder, Barbara did a flip and landed on her rump with the Ginger behind her.  
He dropped to one knee to pull her into a choke hold, his arm around her neck, and his head next to hers. She reached behind her to tap out when a small voice in her head said “fights aren’t always won by who is bigger or stronger or better trained, but by doing something the other guy doesn’t expect”. Instead of surrendering she used one hand to try and slacken his grip on her throat and her other hand turned his face towards her.  
For a moment she saw her face reflected in his glasses, beautiful except for the fact she was turning red and her hair was a mess but then she pushed forward and kissed him, wiping the half snarl from his face to be replaced by a shocked slackness, just as his arm slackened around her throat, for a second it felt like he was about to kiss her back but instead she broke off the contact and spun around to sweep the Gingers legs from under him. He hit the matt and she quickly clambered on top of him before he could recover his senses and put him in a choke of her own, leaning her whole weight into the arm lying across his throat, face mere inches from his as she pulled of his glasses with her other hand.  
She got her first look at the Gingers eyes and saw they were a bluish green like the emerald sea but around the pupil there was a ring of orange that up close made it look like his pupils had a forest fire around them. It certainly match that at this moment his eyes were blazing with an emotion she couldn’t quite identify, Rage maybe, pride? Frustration? Then she felt his hand on her upper thigh and thought of a new one, lust.   
She had to admit they were in a compromising position, faces inches apart, her breasts pressed to his hard pecks, her legs were either side of his waist and she realised she could feel his member resting against her inner thigh like a salami, this was a position that was used by lovers al be it with less clothes and attempted chocking, as she started into his lust filled eyes she imagined riding this man like a rollercoaster and felt a slight arousal, but she always had been one to get wet at the drop of a hat.  
She wouldn’t have to imagine long as the Ginger stopped tapping on her legs and moved his hands slowly up her thighs then long her side dragging her shirt up with them until they stopped just under her breasts against her ribs, she looked down at him in confusion before with a snarl the thrust his hips and pushed her at the same time flinging her clear of him.  
She squealed a bit as she hit the mats but he merely rolled over and began sucking in great lungfuls of air. She realised that the reason his hand had been on her leg was not to seduce her but his attempt at tapping out and that she had been stopping him from breathing the whole time, that also probably explained the fire in his eyes, his lungs were burning.  
“I know you’ve never won before but you need to learn to recognise a tap out and not get some lost in my eyes” he coughed between breaths  
“I’m sorry, are you ok? Are you mad at me?” she said somewhat meekly  
“Mad? Why would I be mad? I’m thrilled. You listened and you learnt a kiss? That was definitely unexpected, threw me right off and gave you the upper hand although you do need to lern to pay attention when you are winning” he beamed at her  
“Not my fault your so attractive” she mumbled to herself  
“What was that?” he asked with a smirk  
“Ah nothing” she said, shit had he overheard her.  
“Anyway a deals a deal, I’ll show you what’s behind my glasses, put em on”  
Barbara realised she was still holding his glasses, she’d meant his eyes when she’d made her earlier comment but by the sounds of what the Ginger was saying now there was more to these glasses than hiding a pair of handsome eyes.  
Putting them on Barbara looked at the Ginger and noticed 3 things immediately, there was a gps map in the bottom left had corner of her view with 4 green arrows on it, a green bar above that and on the right a little thing that simply said “Fists -/-“  
“What is all this” she asked curiously as she looked at the ginger proper and saw a green bar pop up above his head, it was partially empty but as she watched it finished filling up as he regained his breath.  
“Its my HUD or heads up display, it shows me my objectives, map, gps, health, weapons, ammo timers, allies, enemies and lots of other cool stuff” he said with obvious delight  
“Health? Like a video game?” she asked sounding doubtful, how could a person’s wellbeing be shown as a green bar.  
“Well, it shows how damaged a person can become before they lose combat effectiveness, it’s allot more complex than that but the end result is yes it gives me a video game like display in my glasses. Pretty neat huh?” he grinned clearly excited to show off  
“I can see its uses, how do I get one?” she said thinking how nice it would be to have a display of friends and foes positions as well as an ammo counter so shed never be surprised by a reload again.  
“It’s complicated, each one has to be personalised, but that’s a story for another day” he said taking the glasses from her and replacing them on his own face” you made strides today Babs, your done for the day, go hit the showers and” he said with a smirk “I might recommend a cold shower”  
Shit he had over heard her earlier, cheeks burning she rushed from their training room out into their country safe house cheeks burning and the Gingers low chuckle chasing her.

A routine had been established early on in their training; The Ginger would arrive from parts unknown at 8am, check on Meg and teach Ashley about medical procedure with Meg as a guinea pig at least for the first week until Meg was all healed up. Good part about all the crime in los Santos was that it drove medical advancement through the roof, and then it was morning weapon drills and exercise, even the non combatant Meg took part in these but learnt no lethal methods. Then lunch, at which time they’d have a laugh and occasionally play a few video games in which the Ginger had proved to be surprisingly funny and nerdy  
“You’re not a bad guy when you’re not being a cocky prick” Ashley had admitted after a particularly god joke about Marios trousers  
“I’m always a bad guy, I’m just likeable sometimes”  
Then in the afternoon it was all mental exercises, Lindsay about how to run a successful heist, Ashley about medicine some more, Meg with her hacking and Barbara got explosives and a double helping of close combat training.  
“Why do I get double sparring duty?” She had asked  
“You like shotguns right? Well they tend to not be very good a range and have long reload times, so you have a better chance than anyone of having to actually kick someone’s ass. Make sense?” she had begrudgingly agreed telling herself it was because he had a point and not because she wanted to spend more time with him.  
Their equipment also improved thanks in no small part to their heist funds, guns were upgraded new equipment such as better vests, hacking soft ware and laptops, bullet proof cars a motorcycle for meg as hers was totalled and the Ginger had given them their getaway bikes as a “congratulations, welcome to the big leagues” present. He also put them in contact with numerous other nodules such as Lester, Lamar, chop shop dealers and an information broker known as “Cheese master”  
Then one day nearly a month after they had first come to the hideout during lunch Lindsay had stood up and made an announcement.  
“I have a job for us” she grinned “A small bank on the coast, light security and an easy mark. I think it’s time that RWBY left seclusion and got back in the game”  
There were general shouts and whoops of joy as they all thought of getting out of this hovel and back to their homes but there was just one thing nagging at Meg.   
“Are we ready?” she asked when the noise had died down  
“I think so” came the deep voice of the Ginger behind her “Should be an easy job but big enough to let people know you’re back and here to play”  
“So our training is over?” Came the exited voice of Meg  
“Well you never stop learning but my part in teaching you is done”  
“So I guess you’ll be going back to your gang now” came the surprisingly sad voice Ashley and they all turned solemn for a moment for to spite the fact he was in a way their enemy they had all grown to become friends with the Ginger, he was likeable and had been a big part of their lives for a month. In that time he had missed a few days due to his gangs activities but mostly it had been easy to forget he wasn’t part of their crew. Now they were losing him  
“Yeah, I will” he said also sounding downcast “but that doesn’t mean we can’t still be friends, you have my number if you ever want to hang out, and if my crew ever clashes with yours I’ll try not to kill ya”   
“You’re not getting away that easy” said Lindsay sternly “You better be here for the after job after party or I’ll kill you meself”   
A grin split across both their faces as the Ginger replied “Well with an offer like that how can I refuse” before they burst out laughing.  
After the laughter died down Lindsay began to explain her plan.  
“It’s real simple, Meg you stay in the car and hack the alarms, then the 3 of us move in. Ash keeps the hostages under control while Babs and I empty the vault. Then we all get in the car and drive away.”  
“Thats it? Sounds a bit familiar also it can’t be that simple” said Ashley  
“It can and is. This is a small, chain bank, no employee cares enough about their job to try anything, there will only be 3 customers’ tops and the security system is a joke, theres not even a guard. With our new skills and equipment it should be all too easy”  
“When we gonna do this?” asked Barbara  
“Tomorrow, at about 11:30am, there will be fewer customers then, but this means we have to spend tonight in the city, that’s right, you can sleep in your own beds tonight. Just meet me at mine by 10am for some prep. Dismissed”   
There was a general pleasant attitude as the women went about preparing to head home for the night. They’d be back again after the heist but for now the idea of being alone in their own home was bliss. They loved each other like sisters but spend a month in close proximity with anyone and you’ll eventually need your space.  
As all this was going on the Ginger quietly tried to slip away but was caught by Barbara who said ”Where are you going?”  
“Same place I always go, home. We’re done for the day, nothing left for me here.” He shrugged  
“So you’re just leaving” she asked hiding the hurt she felt  
“I’ll be back to celebrate tomorrow, and don’t worry Babs, I won’t be all that far away” he said lowering his glasses in the way he’d taken up with her and giving her a wink.  
“In that case see you tomorrow” she laughed sticking out her hand for him to shake  
“Oh my little chickadees all grown up” he comically wailed like a distressed mother while pulling her into a hug that consisted of him wrapping his arms around her head to crush her face into his chest.  
“Get off me” she growled shoving him in the stomach to extract herself “Besides I’m older than you”  
“Sure you are” he patronised as he disappeared out the front door and into the world.  
She just grinned at the door, fists clenched, mad at him but not missing the humour of what he’d done, The others had come to see what the wailing was about now stood snickering over the scene they’d just witnessed.  
“Fuck it I’m going home” she said snatching her half prepared duffle bag up and leaving herself, he was nowhere in sight already but Barabra didn’t care, she got on her yellow and black bike she now called the Bumblebee, or bumblme when she felt like it and went home.


	6. Secrets in the dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Probably could of skipped this chapter but had to lay some ground work somewhere

“So where all clear on the plan?” Asked Lindsay over her kitchen table covered in blueprints.  
“Yep” came the general reply from the three other women clustered around the table absentmindedly toying with their weapons and heist gear while mentally reviewing the plan, really the plan was no more complicated than Lindsay had laded out the day before it was just how they were going to accomplish it that kept the women’s thoughts busy.   
“Alright then, to the car” declared Lindsay pointing forward and marching down stairs to where their Red Armoured Karuma was waiting. After having seen the Gingers in action it was agreed that this would be the perfect car for the job so Lindsay had bought one with her previous heist money.  
They got in Lindsay driving, Meg in the passenger’s seat playing with her new Laptop and hacking software, while Ashley and Barbara took up the back. They pulled away from Lindsays inconspicuous apartment on the rougher side of Los Santos and made their way to the bank.  
“So are we doing the whole brand recognition thing now?” asked Ashley “This car is very red”  
“Yeah, half the point of doing big crimes it to show other crews what your capable of so they won’t fuck with you, The Ginger taught me that” responded Lindsay “Speaking of which you brought the spray paint right Barbara?”  
“Sure did” she smiled patting the duffle bag that soon would contain millions of dollars but right now contained only a can of spray paint.  
“Good, I want them to know who did this”.

When they arrived they first waited in the car in the parking lot until Meg gave them the signal that the Alarms were cut and the cameras off before they made their move. Masks on sweeping into the building the plan went off like clockwork.  
Ashley was very quickly able to get the hostages under control as Barbara and Lindsay swept passed them to clear out the back bringing any stragglers to where Ashley could handle them before walking the vault that was opened by a few keystrokes from Meg. There Lindsay started collecting the money as Barbara se about graffiting the place with “RWBY” tags. Then when they had all the money they pulled back, re acquired Ashley and left, stopping only to paint a final large “RWBY” across the front window before they were in the car and going back up the highway.  
“That was so easy” laughed Barbara rifling through the now full cash bag, “there’s probably about 2 mill in here”  
“It was much smoother than last time” agreed Lindsay a pleased tone to her voice as she drove up the costal highway

“Why aren’t we going faster?” asked Ashley somewhat concerned by the casual pace of Lindsays driving “Won’t they catch us?”  
“Nah, thanks to our little hacker here” she praised reaching over to ruffle Megs hair almost knocking her black heist wig off, “They have no video of us and haven’t made this car yet, Look there they go now”  
At that moment 3 police cars with lights flashing came roaring past them back towards the bank they were now casually escaping from without giving the red car a second glance.  
“See” said Lindsay a grin smearing across her face “as long as we do nothing stupid all we have to do is get home, celebrate and split the loot.  
They arrived at the house near sun set, their hadn’t been a pursuit but they had still gone through the back roads over the mountains to avoid pursuit and cameras, they wanted themselves known not caught.  
When they arrived well pleased with themselves they came in to find the house empty.  
“I’m gonna have to kill him” said Lindsay throwing the cash bag onto the table and looking around for the Ginger who was supposed to be there for the party.  
“Maybe he got held up or had to do stuff with his gang” offered Meg as she and the others relieved themselves of their various weapons and equipment, that stuff would save their lives but it sure got heavy.  
“And maybe he’s in the back yard” came a shrill attempt at a feminine voice from outside.  
Grinning they walked through the house and out to the back yard. The back yard had changed allot over the last month, first it had been a rundown over grown wasteland, then it had been converted into a makeshift obstacle course for their training, now it was all set up to party. A barbeque had been placed off to one side with a cooler next to it, another cooler sat near what was the centre piece, a massive bonfire about 5 feet tall had been set up ready to be lit, a table and chairs was set up a safe distance away for sitting around. Inside the house but at the open window was a set of speakers with ready to go and standing in the centre of all this chaos was the Ginger.  
“You’ve been busy” said Lindsay leading the way out into the backyard with the others in tow.  
“Thank you” he said with a bow “but you haven’t been idle either, It’s all over the news “bank robbed by mysterious RWBY criminals”, good job girls sounds like their wasn’t even a chase”  
“What’s all this” Asked Ashley looking around at the various things the Ginger had set up  
“To celebrate your first successful solo heist and your graduation from training I thought I’d treat you to a classic Aussie barbecue, grogs in the esky over there, now I need to get the snags on the barbie” he said going over to the barbecue  
Seeing the completely lost look on their faces he rolled his eyes behind his ever present aviators and translated “Theirs booze in the cooler over there, now I need to get the sausages onto the barbeque”.  
Going over to get some beers from the cooler the women sank into the chairs around the table and relaxed sipping their Coronas and talking about how they were going to spend the money from the heist until the ginger came over bearing a huge platter of sausages, burgers and steaks.  
“Is there any salad?” asked Meg eyeing off the all meat mountain  
The Ginger gave her a look that was clearly disapproving before walking into the house and returning with bowls of salad as well as bread, cheese and sauce.  
“Dig in” he declared and the party began, after a big dinner of excellently cooked barbecue, they sat around listening to the music, and chatting until the sun set and they started playing a drinking game called kings cup. This involved a large beaker being placed in the center of the table surrounded by a ring formed by a deck of cards.  
“So everyone know the rules?” asked the Ginger as he poured a bit of his Whiskey and coke into the beaker as a “buy in”  
“Mostly but everyone plays it differently so let’s go over them” replied Lindsay also buying in  
“Ok, we all take turns drawing a card, Ace is waterfall, who ever draws it starts drinking and everyone drinks with them till they stop.   
2 you, allocate a drink to someone.   
3 me, take a drink yourself  
4 whores, all women drink  
5 make a rule, the person makes a rule and if you break it you drink  
6 dicks, men drink  
7 heaven, last person to point up drinks  
8 mate, pick someone and they drink every time you do  
9 rhyme, say a word and whoever cant think of a rhyme drinks  
10 thumb master, the person can at anytime put their thumb on the table and the last person to notice and copy the motion has to drink.  
Jack Never have I ever, classic slumber party game, 3 strikes your out  
Queen question master, if this person asks a question whoever answers it drinks  
King fills the cup, when the last king is drawn who ever drew it has to drink the full cup.   
Clear now?” he finished a little out of breath  
“Crystal” said Barbara drawing the first card which was a 4  
“Damn it” she muttered at the women all took a drink  
“I like this game already” laughed the Ginger  
The game continued for a while as the group progressed through the deck, Ashley became both thumb and question master allowing her to force many drinks on others but Lindsay got her back by making Ashley her mate so she had to drink when Lindsay did. The Ginger managed to get all 4 “me’s” in a row and insisted on reshuffling the deck before next drawing all 4 of the “dicks” much to everyone’s amusement except Barbara as she had already been made his “mate”.   
“Alright bitches” said Lindsay drawing her next card “Jack, never have I ever, oooh”  
All of them held up 3 fingers to count the strikes as Lindsay asked her question “Never have I ever had green eyes”  
The Ginger took a drink and turned his glasses covered gaze to Barbara “So you told them? Also wasn’t that a bit of an aimed question?”  
Barbara went to respond but Lindsay cut her off with a teasing “Ooooh, she knew did she? I had no idea your eyes were green but I know these girls like family so of course I’m gonna use this game to fish for dirt on you”  
“Well if you’re gonna be that its my turn. Never have I ever had sex with a man” he growled and watch with some satisfaction as all the women had to take a drink   
“My turn” Meg claimed excitedly “So Babs has seen you with your glasses off eh, Never have I ever fucked Barbara”. Meg looked at him expectantly but he made no move to take a drink and her face fell a little with disappointment.  
“Ok my turn, Never have I ever gotten a concussion playing basketball in a helmet and padded sumo suit” Barbara said while shooting daggers at Meg who had to take a drink as the Ginger laughed to himself.   
“A concussion?” he chuckled raising an eyebrow in Megs direction  
“I was pushed” she huffed “Ashley your turn”.  
“Never have I ever, thought about betraying this crew” Hissed Ashley keeping a close eye on the Ginger as he made no move to take a drink  
“Well last question before I strike out our little Meg here” challenged the Ginger staring at Lindsay as she stared at him  
Thinking that Ashley had raised a good point but worded it badly Lindsay asked “Never have I ever thought about hurting someone in this crew”  
All the women took a drink because as in any good friendship they had all wanted to kick each other’s asses a few times but mostly they watched in horror as the Ginger slowly took a drink of his own.  
“Who was it? Ashley?” asked Lindsay the wider conversation forgotten as it just focused to the crew leader and the outsider who had thought about hurting them  
He shook his head “No, it was Barbara”  
Barbara couldn’t help but feel hurt as the man she couldn’t help but be attracted to admitted that he had wanted to “hurt” her but lisened on in the hopes of finding a forgivable context.  
“Explain yourself” demanded Lindsay things suddenly seeming much more sober  
“Did Barbara ever tell you how we met?”  
Lindsay nodded “Yeah she was in a spot of bother at a gas station and you helped her out of it”  
“Yeah thats the one. Ever wonder why I, THE perfect guy to help her out in that situation was in the right place at the right time? It was no coincidence, I was sent to kill her, my crew knew you were moving into our turf and wanted me to send a message in the form of a very dead Barbara, but when I was there I had a change of heart and decided it would be more fun to help her, still told her to stay away from my crews territory, the others might not be as nice as me” he admitted as honestly as he could.  
“Would you try to kill her if your crew asked now?”  
“No, she’s my friend, you all are and on the street friends are all you got, if you’re not loyal to them you’re worse than shit”   
Lindsay regarded him with a cold stare weighing everything she knew and had observed about him over the last month against this new information and reached a decision. “Cool, Well Meg lost so let’s get on with the game” and like that the spell was broken and the game resumed with its previous levity.   
They kept playing with many drinks being thrown around, the never have I ever came up again but their misaimed questions were unable to pull anything out of the Ginger, in the end it was Meg who drew the final king and had to drink the beer, gin, Vodka and Whisky filled jug.  
“Please don’t judge me if I vomit” she cried before trying to down the cup in 1 go, but it proved to be too much and she had to stop to catch her breath and cough before finishing it off.  
As she finished the spectators cheered her on and celebrated her accomplishment with many whoops and slaps on the back before the Ginger excused himself to go light the bonfire taking Lindsay and Ashley with him.  
“Good job” encouraged Barbara as Meg sat back down at the table after her sculling spree, “That was something to see”  
“Theres something I want to ask you before all this alcohol hits me” slurred Meg, struggling to meet Barbara gaze as exhaustion and alcohol began to overtake her. “How did you see the Ginger with his glasses off? He never takes em off, He wears them at night for god sake”  
“I knocked them off in training” replied Barbara quickly not lying but not wanting to fan the flames of Megs suspicion about her and the Ginger.  
“Oh, How did you manage that? No offence but we both trained with him and we could barley lay a hand on him. But you managed to knock his glasses off? How?” Meg stumbling over her continued words but still maintaining eye contact.  
“I’m just that good” laughed Barbara trying to end this topic unwilling to admit how she had really gotten his glasses.  
Meg shook her head, purple locks bouncing and shining in the new firelight before confessing “Look, I don’t know what you did or why you don’t want to admit you have a thing for him, but I’ve seen the lingering looks you give him, balls up woman and make a play”  
Barbara was distraught for a moment that Meg had realised her feelings but it was refreshing to have someone to talk to this about and going off the way Meg was leaning in her chair there was a good chance she wouldn’t remember this conversation  
“But what if he doesn’t like me back? I like being friends with him, what if I make a move and send him running back to his gang never to be seen again?”   
Barbara was getting a little chocked up with her own invented scenario but Meg just howled with drunken laughter, Lindsay and Ashley turned to look at them but a gesture from Barbara sent them back to their own conversation by the fireside  
Meg trailed off into a chuckle before saying “Babs you can be so blind, he likes you back, OF course he likes you back your perfect. Don’t believe me? Ok so if this knocking his glasses off story is true did you knock them off? Or did he let you knock them off”  
Barbara went to reply but Meg had already trailed off into a drunken slumber but she was right the Ginger had let her take his glasses. Determined she stood up, intent to confront him about her feelings but when she looked over to the bonfire he wasn’t there.  
“Wheres the Ginger?” she called over to Ashley and Lindsay by the bonfire  
“He mumbled something and walked off that way” Said Lindsay pointing off into the darkness past the left side of the house. “Is Meg ok?”  
“Yeah, the kings cup just got her is all, she’s sleeping it off now” replied Barbara as she started walking off in the direction Lindsay had pointed.  
Walking away from the light of the bonfire it quickly darkened and Barbara was about to pull out her phone for a light when she softly heard the song “Do I wanna know” by the Arctic monkeys coming out of the darkness.  
Smiling and knowing the Gingers love for musical accompaniment she tracked the sound to its source where she found the Ginger sitting with his back against a tree and away from the fire, staring up into the sky.  
“Hey what you doing?” she asked coyly, clasping her hands behind her back in the way that pushed her chest out tantalisingly   
“H.. hey Babs, nothing, nothing” he stammered his voice catching and breaking as he jumped to his feet and wiped his face with the back of his hands one of which was still clutching an empty bottle of whiskey.  
“You ok?” she asked putting a hand on his arm her tone turning to concern as she heard a clear distress in his voice that was nothing like she had ever seen in him before, normally he was so cocksure and eccentric, now he seemed vulnerable and miserable even thought he was quickly trying to hide it.  
“Yeah, fine. It’s just... this... it brings back memories” he stumbled out still trying to cover for his earlier distress but not returning to his past cockiness  
“Bad memories” she inquired moving to put an arm around his shoulder, all thoughts of confrontation about her feelings forgotten in the wake of his distress  
“Ha, no” he half laughed/ half sobbed “good memories, some of the best I have”. He smiled looking off into the distance at a scene that only existed in his memory, even as tears began to leak out from the side of his glasses.  
“If they’re so good why are you so upset” she reached up and started to remove his glasses, he twitched like he might move to stop her but instead allowed her to take them off. Underneath his eyes were shining with tears and glazed with a deep melancholy.  
“Because everybody in them is dead, they were the best people I’ve ever known and in the end they died because of me. Now here with you, I feel things I haven’t felt since then and it’s bringing it back, bringing it all back...” he trailed off once again lost in his memories as Barbara tried to console him on things she knew nothing about.  
Before Barbara could recover enough to find a new question The Ginger gave a large sniff, a small cough and returned back to the cocky bastard he normal was.  
“Sorry about that, didn’t want to put that on you” he said with his usual confidence but now that she knew what to look for she could hear the underlying melancholy that hung behind all his words. “Oh and sorry for the whole trying to kill you thing”  
“It’s no problem” she laughed off “In the end you helped me out, I’ll judge you by your actions not your intentions”   
He held out his hand and she gave him back his glasses which he then put back on before leading Barbara back to the others, Just before they they entered the fire light he stopped and looking at her over his glasses he said “Thank you, for everything” before walking off into the light without a word of explanation.  
“Where have you two been?” asked Lindsay as they strode into the fire light  
“I went for a piss and Babs came to find me” explained the Ginger with a slight raise of the eyebrows to Barbara clearly code to not tell them what actually happened.  
“How was I to know you were taking a piss? You walked off into the wilderness like an animal, not to the toilet like a human you pig” she replied with mock anger to cement the Gingers cover story.  
“Hey, when you’re a man the world is your toilet” he said taking his seat by the fire and relaxing back into a normal conversation that lasted long into the night before eventually when the fire burnt low the Ginger left and the others carried Meg with them to bed


	7. Hard Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its Time I started delivering on those tags.
> 
> Also thank you so much for the kind comments. This is the last chapter I had pre written so the rest will come a bit slower sorry.

A few weeks later The Ginger and Barbara were hanging out in her apartment, during their training she had discovered that he had never had a GameCube so they had started playing through the old classics.  
They were sitting at opposite ends of her new couch looking her new flat screen HD TV which frankly seemed overkill for the old GameCube’s graphics but when Barbara surveyed her now much cleaner and newer apartment she had to admit that crime DID pay.  
“Eat shit Bowser” he exclaimed as the turtle king finally died to their assault. They high fived but there wasn’t much time for celebration as his the Gingers phone rang.  
“Shit its Ryz, I gotta take this” he explained as he turned and walked a short distance away to take the call.  
Barbra remembered him telling her who Ryz was, Ryz was the leader of Alpha street sinners and the Gingers best friend, she had no idea what he looked like but she knew he was eccentric, dangerous and fiercely loyal to his friends and crew. The Ginger knew Ryz from back in Australia and It was Ryz who had brought the Ginger to Los Santos and formed the only gang that had ever gone toe to toe with Fake AH and survived.  
He finished his call and walked back over to her a disappointed look on his face “Sorry, I’ve gotta go, its work, one of our drug rings is behind on their payments and I have to go sort em out”  
“Aww but I was having fun” she whined “Can’t I come with you?”  
He paused for a moment and began thinking out loud “well I was told I could use whatever I wanted as long as I didn’t kill them, and you have been trained although you haven’t been tested really, could be a good learning experience”  
A wide grin split his face as he turned to her and proclaimed “Alright you can come with me but one thing, these guys have gotten to big for their boots BUT we still need them so sell our drugs so we go in there, rough em up, break a few bones, remind them who’s in charge but don’t kill anyone unless you have to”  
“Ok got it, so where we going?” she asked getting up and walking over to the closet to get out her heist outfit  
Noticing what she was doing he said “A house near the warehouses on the docks, also its probably best you don’t wear your distinctive outfit, cross gang fraternisation and all that, just pull on a bulletproof vest and a jumper then let’s go”   
Doing as he bid she was soon in his bright orange car going over factors in her head like he’d taught her. Her clothes wouldn’t get in her way, sensible vans, jeans that were both stretchy enough to let her kick over her head and form fitting enough to make her ass look great, between her Bra, shirt, vest and Jumper there was little chance of anything falling out and she could take a bullet from 3 meters and be fine, her hair was in a ponytail, a risk of being grabbed but it would keep it out of her eyes. She also had a knife on her calf and a pistol in her belt “just in case”.  
“where here” he said bringing her out of her deliberations as they arrived at a smallish, run down, two story house near the docks. It looked rough and if the low riders and booming music were anything to go off it was defiantly a drug den.  
“I told them to tidy up and make the place less suspicious” the Ginger said shaking his head and walking up to the front door with Barbara in step behind him.  
Pausing just before the door he said a last few words to Barbara before walking into the house “Be on your guard, don’t kill unless you have to and wait for my signal before you start kicking ass”  
Barbara rolled her eyes before following him into the house, they were in a corridor with doorways on either side through which she could see people “coding” and injecting various “mods”. Mods were the latest drug craze in Los Santos, they altered the users perception of reality for a tailored experience, the most popular ones made people think they could fly, run at super speed, be invincible or in the case of “Hulk” the most popular one a combination of all of them.  
Leading into the living room the Ginger found his quarry, Miles Luna sitting on the couch surrounded but wads of cash and bags of mods, lounging around him were nearly a dozen various dealers and muscle all staring at the Ginger and her with unconcealed hostility.   
“Who’s the bitch?” Miles began in a tone of complete distain jutting his chin in Barbara’s direction  
“The asshole on the chair in front of me” she responded with equal dismissal, coming to stand in front of him and next to the Ginger. Miles began to rise to the barb but the Ginger cut him off.  
“Hey, knock it off, you’re 2 months behind on your payments Luna, what’s going on here? Not selling enough product?” he said in a business like tone with just a tinge of hostility   
Miles stood up and tried to get in the Gingers face but could only reach his chest, at the same time his various goons moved to form a rough circle around the two of them.  
“You see, I’ve been thinking, MY guys make the drugs, MY guys sell the drugs, MY guys have all the risk yet you and your ASSholes take the profits, that doesn’t make sense to me, why do you get the money when we take the risk? Because you’re scary? You “big league” criminals will come and smite us like gods from on high? NO, while you’ve gotten fat and weak we’ve become strong. We don’t need you any more, everyone in this room has killed at least 1 cop and were more than able to take you out. So why don’t you fuck off. The money is OURS and you’ll never see another cent of it again.”   
As he spoke he moved with a nervous energy, twitching and talking as much with his hands and body language as his voice. The Ginger on the other hand had mostly ignored the shorter man in favour of messing with his phone. From her position at his side Barbara watched him open a playlist called and start scrolling through songs. She saw songs like “Kick start my heart”, “X gone give it to ya” and “Mother” before he settled on “Ace of spades” by Motorhead.  
Before the song even began they were both moving, The Ginger driving an elbow into Lunas jaw before wheeling about to face the 6 men to their left, that was all Barbara saw as at that moment she turned to face the 6 men to their right and had her own foes to worry about.  
Still with the element of surprise she rushed forward, ducking under a badly aimed grab to spin an elbow into his sternum, he went down struggling to breath as his diaphragm went haywire from the force of the blow. “1 down 5 to go” she thought but now the other 5 had recovered from their initial surprise and were ready for her.   
They closed in as a semicircle, edging around to try and surround her but she kept moving to avoid being trapped, when this outnumbered mobility was key. She rushed to the left and avoiding a clumsy grasp from the man on her right she targeted the man on the extreme left of the semi circle and stomped on his knee. He cursed an went down dragging the man next to him down in his flailing. Using the two bodies on the carpet to create a space she kicked the man she had struck in the temple and his struggles ceased.  
By now the other three had moved around their fallen allies and rushed her as together. One of them had acquired a baseball bat and swung it at her head, she ducked beneath the blow only to cop a kick to the side from another of the men. She stumbled into the hallway and was able to regain her against the wall. One of the men was in the doorway coming for her but now the narrow hallway had restricted them to one at a time.  
The man threw a vicious right hook at her that she leaned back to avoid, his fist continued on and imbedded itself in the plasterboard wall. Seeing an opportunity she drove a knee into his groin and an elbow into his face leaving him slumped against the wall unconscious. She readied herself for her next opponent only for no one to come through the door. After a moment’s hesitation she walked into the room fists ready and surveyed the scene.  
Luna was behind the couch, clutching his jaw as he pointed and shouted instructions to the men surrounding the Ginger. There were only 5 of them left, four bodies lay on the ground around him in various degrees of pain but now he was being hemmed in by 3 guys with bats and 2 guys with knives.  
As she watched one of the knife wielders dived in to try and stab the Ginger, the Ginger in turn caught his wrist and locked his arm out straight before slamming his palm into the man elbow. It broke with a wet crack as his arm bent the way it was never meant to bend. The man fell to the ground screaming but was soon silenced by the sole of the now armed Gingers foot.  
Barbara moved up behind one of the bat wielders as he brought it back for a swing and grabbed it before ripping it from his grip. He spun around as well a dumb look of surprise on his face as she bunted him in the face with her now bat shattering his nose and sending him stumbling back to the Ginger who kicked him into another bat wielder.  
The surprise of her arrival was all the Ginger needed to jump the last standing bat wielder as Barbara swung her bat both handed into the knife holder stomach, he folded like a leaf around the bat falling gasping to his hands and knees before a final down stroke to the back of the head knocked him out. She began to go help the Ginger but quickly saw that his enemies were now all bleeding on the ground truly out of the fight.  
“You ok?” he called to her as he walked towards Luna who was now cowering in the corner of the room.  
“Fine, how about you?” she responded falling into step beside him  
“Fantastic, thanks for your help back there. Now let’s deal with this piece of shit” he said pulling Luna to his feet before slamming him back into the wall.  
“So you’re gonna pay me double what you owe us now, and if you EVER miss a payment again I’ll come back here and skin you myself” he threatened in a low dangerous voice while slowly stroking the blade of the knife down Miles face. Miles was terrified so only Barbara caught the tint of amusement in his words, This was all a big game to him.  
“I, I, I promise, no I swear I’ll never miss a payment again, just please don’t kill me” Miles stammered eyes flicking between the knifes edge and the Gingers glasses.  
“Good” purred the Ginger flicking the knife long Miles cheekbone leaving a deep enough cut to scar.  
After grabbing enough of the spilled cash to cover what Miles owed him the Ginger walked out of the building cheerily calling “See you next month” over his shoulder to the terrified miles. Barbra followed him out feeling the endorphin rush that always came after a good scrap.  
They waited until they were in the car and out of earshot before near simultaneously breaking into laughter and whooping celebration.   
“That was awesome” Barbara giggled “I knew I’d gotten better since I trained with you but I never realised it. It was like they were moving in slow motion”  
“I know right? Once you know what you’re doing it’s like it’s not even fair, their so clumsy, slow and off balance, taking them out is a piece of cake”  
“So what now? After knocking motherfuckers out, jumping on goombas just doesn’t seem that fun anymore” asked Barbara still shaking with adrenaline  
“How about the bar for a celebratory drink? Your first real fight and you did good kid” he beamed back at her  
“Stop calling me kid, I’m 26 years old and your about 21 at the most Kid, so stop it” she said firmly but not unkindly  
“Ok Barbara I will, now there’s this great bar nearby, lets hit it up, it’s already 5 O’clock”  
“Lead the way” she smiled

The bar they went to was a total dive but it the Ginger said it reminded him of his roots, “besides the drinks are cheap and the bartender is a top bloke” he grinned raising his glass of whiskey in the bartenders direction. The bartender an older man probably in his 50 but still had the hardness that only crime bread into you nodded his head in acknowledgement.   
Noticing his drink of choice Barb teased “Why the whiskey? The big bad Ginger to good for beer?”  
“I love beer” he bristled “but I’m Australian and to me this American beer is like having sex in a canoe”  
“So its great” she interjected   
“No, It’s fucking close to water” he said before bursting into laughter alongside Barbara, however he abruptly cut off mid laugh and stiffened as his gaze snapped to the door behind Barbara or more importantly who had just walked through it.  
Seeing his sudden change in demeanour Barbara turned to assess the newcomers and was alarmed to realise she knew who they were to. Standing there clear as day were Gavino and Mogar of the Fake AH crew.  
Gavino was a thin looking man who was known for being the weakest of the crew in a fight but he more than made up for it with his hacking skills, he was Fake AH’s wiz kid and rumour had it he was handy at flighting too. However i was the man beside him that was more cause for alarm.  
Mogar wouldn’t of been 6 feet but what he lacked in height he made up for in muscle and reputation. He was Fake AH’s heavy known for causing death and destruction on massive scale with explosives and Miniguns, The Ginger had once told Barbara that there were only 2 people he wasn’t sure he could take in a fight, Mogar and the Vagabond, now looking at his muscles and the way he moved like he was an apex predator she could see why.  
Even as she was watching them Mogar noticed them or rather the Ginger sitting in their booth, he slapped a hand into Gavinos chest to get his attention and when Gavino noticed the Ginger he let out a small squawk and recoiled before being dragged along by Mogar toward them.  
“What do we do?” Barbara hissed eyeing the approaching crims “Arn’t you and them at war? Are they going to try an kill us?”  
“Don’t do anything stupid, we can talk our way out of this, now sit next to me and relax, I’ll do the talking just follow my lead” he whispered back somewhat strained, Barbara did as he asked but had no time for a response at Gavino and Mogar slipped into the booth facing them.  
“Mogar, Gavino” The ginger greeted them with a nod each.  
“Ginger” replied Mogar with a return nod, “And lets see, Blond, buxom, wearing a bulletproof vest and concealing a gun. You must be this Yellow I keep hearing about”  
Barbara breath caught a little to know that Mogar and by extension Fake AH knew her so well.  
“Yeah” cut in the Ginger covering for her hesitation “Since RWBY have become a serious player I was just about to tell her about the rules”  
“So your not here running a job? Cause this is Fake AH turf. And I will not hesitate to end you if your breaking the truce?” challenged Mogar with un restrained hostility   
“I’d like to see you try” answered the Ginger rising to the bait “I’ll put you in the fucking ground”  
“You wanna go” roared Mogar leaping to his feet  
“Bring it little man” The Ginger replied in kind rising to meet him till they were standing inches apart.  
Barbara was startled by this development to say the least. She looked to Gavino for help but seeing she would get none for him she went to intervene  
“Guys calm down, Mogar no one...”  
The Ginger cracked first, a snort leading them both to break down into hysterical laughter and collapse back into the booth.  
“What..” began Barbara but was cut off by the Ginger still laughing saying “You sould of seen the look on your face”  
“Priceless” added Mogar clapping like a retarded seal  
“So.. SO you don’t hate each other? Your not at war?” spluttered Barbara   
“Well I wouldn’t say that” Said Mogar coming down from his giggle high “If I catch him running a Job on Fake AH marks I will kill him”  
“Same if he hits ASShole marks” added he Ginger “As for hating each other, like recognises like, theres no hard feeling, can’t afford to be”  
“No hard feeling, you smashed me bloody head into a wall” scoffed Gavino finally speaking.  
“You were trying to kill him dude” justified Mogar.  
Seeing Barbara’s confusion the Ginger said “We should probably tell her the full story. It all went down 2 years ago”.


	8. Birth of Sin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its back, sorry about the delay.
> 
> How did the truce between the Sinners and Fake AH start?

“About 2 and a half years ago was when the Sinners began their push into Los Santos, we knew that if we wanted the city we had to out the Fake AH crew so went after them” the Ginger began  
“And the bastards knew right where to hit us too, they destroyed our drug labs, stole shipments or cash, drugs and weapons, killed our informants and torched our vehicles. They were fucking annoying” Interjected Mogar  
“Cheers to that” said the Ginger raising his glass to clink with Mogars before turning back to Barbra “See we didn’t know if we could take Fake AH in an all out fight, I mean they are all legends in their own right, so the plan was to cut off their supplies and sweep the city from under them and because they never knew where we were going to hit next we never ran into more than 2 of them at a time and they were usually smart enough to back off”  
“Then there was Maze bank...” Mogar trailed off as a sombre mood fell over the table  
“What happened at maze bank?” Barbra asked after a respectful pause  
“It’s where the Fake AH finally brought their full strength against us; somehow they knew when we were going to rob the place and waited to ambush us. It’s the greatest non military firelight in history, no one walked away unhurt and some didn’t at all” said the Ginger in a funerary tone  
“It’s where the Vagabond died”

 

Two years ago, Maze Bank  
“This should be easy right? They’re not expect us so we can just gun em down” asked Jack the crews resident pilot and get away driver, from her position on the second level balcony  
“Yeah, like sitting ducks I’ll blow straight to hell, No scope” boasted Brownman the best sniper in Los Santos from the second floor balcony opposite  
“I’m just glad we finally cornered the fuckers, they’ll pay for what they did to the 00Mogar” growled Mogar from his position hidden behind the decorative half wall to the right  
“Yeah, Boss says if I catch one of them I can do whatever I want to them after they torched my Zentorno” hissed the Vagabond, the crews weapon of terror, torture and destruction, in that calmly terrifying way that made the rest of them Shiver.  
The Vagabonds position opposite Mogar on the left nothing could escape their fields of fire, same with the over watch from Jack and Brownman, as soon as the Sinners walked in, saw the Boss standing behind the centre teller booth, they wouldn’t have time to process their mistake before the bank became a killing zone.  
“Can it the lot of you” Growled the Boss, team leader, strategist and king of Los Santos, over their coms “Gavino’s watching the cameras and he just saw them pull up, looks like to vehicles, fast and probably armoured but they’ve parked right over the C4 Mogar planted earlier, as soon as the walk in and we start shooting blow the C4”  
“You got it boss”  
“Alright here they come, looks like the blonde girl “Brothy” is staying with the cars, good one less to deal with, alright on your marks, Remember this won’t be easy they might not be expecting us but they still came to rob a bank so expect heavy armour and weaponry. Now everyone get in position, their coming in”  
Every one ducked into hiding until it was just the Boss standing behind the teller booths, Mogar didn’t like the boss exposing himself like that but the glass was bulletproof “Besides, you don’t become the king of Los Santos without taking a few risks” as the Boss had said  
They entered the bank guns up, Mister Green leading the way in long shaggy blond hair draped over his shotgun, followed by his brother Continuum with his beard and perceptive eyes, then it was the Asian tough known only as Major, then the person of unknown gender called Butch, these 5 fanned throughout the foyer as finally the top three made their way in, Dojoguy and the Ginger entered the building in perfect synchrony, scanning all potential threats before stepping aside to allow in Ryz. Ryz strutted in with all the confidence of an unchallenged pimp and he looked like one too with hi purple pants, zebra pattern jacket and purple hat complete with feathers.  
The Boss looked them over, so these were the ones who had been fucking with his system? He was unimpressed they looked to be in their early twenties and aside from Dojoguy and the Ginger, no one seemed to be taking this seriously, his lip curled with disgust at Ryz addressed him.  
“Good afternoon my fine sir, my friends and I have come to make a withdrawal, we seem to have forgotten our cards but I assure you all the cash in your vault does belong to us, and yes you may press the silent alarm all you want we have cut the line so be a lamb and help us to the vault please”  
The Boss sneered in disgust at the arrogance this kid was showing before replying “Sorry kid, No withdrawals today and the money in the Vault belongs to the Fake AH crew not you”  
Ryz looked crest fallen and leaned against the teller booth, shoulder on the glass, he was out of sight of Jack and Brownman but that was hardly going to matter. “But their not here are they?” he whispered through the grill before looking at the Bosses face harder “Or are they” his eyes widened in realisation as The Boss and Ryz both shouted at the same time  
“GO”  
“IT’S A TRAP”  
Then it all kicked off  
Mogar hit the detonator and heard telltale explosion that meant their escape vehicles and Brothy wouldn’t be a problem. At the same time the Sinners had began scrambling for cover as Fake AH sprung their trap.  
The Jack unloaded with her SMG hitting Dojoguy in the chest and shoulder but the way he dove for cover inferred that his armour had held. The same couldn’t be said for Mister Green whose head disappeared into a welter of blood and bone courtesy of the Vagabonds MG, he didn’t stop there as he sprayed across the whole group hitting Butch in the stomach, knocking them double but still alive. Continuum tried to go to his brother’s aid but was forced back by Brownmans fire that hit him in the calf. To spite their wounds they all successful made it into what little cover there was and began to fire back.  
Meanwhile by the tellers the bulletproof glass meant the Boss couldn’t shoot out and if Ryz moved he’d enter a field of fire so they simply glared at each other as hell surrounded them.  
“End of the line Kid”  
“You’re dead already old man, you just don’t know it yet”  
“Now Ryz” called out the Ginger as in a coordinated move all the Sinners rose out of cover and fired at a different member of Fake AH forcing them to drop into cover and creating a window for Ryz to rejoin his crew  
Jack popped up and managed to hit him twice in the back with an SMG but was shot across the chest in return by Dojoguy, her vest absorbed the first couple before she took one in the throat and fell behind cover. Ryz stumbled and all most fell but kept up his run till he was in cover with the Ginger and Dojo guy  
“Mogar, Now” called the Boss so Mogar rose out of his own spot, covered by fire from Brownman and the Vagabond, hefted his grenade launcher to where Ryz was hiding and let fly.  
The half wall disintegrated into a thousand splinters as Ryz, Dojoguy and the Ginger were thrown through the air like dolls, Brownman and the Vagabond tried to seize the opportunity but were only able to fire a few rounds before The Vagabond was hit in the head by a round from the continuum and Brownman was forced back into his swiftly being blown away cover, but they made those rounds count, Dojo guy was hit through the calf, thigh and hip, Ryz gained a second asshole six inches to the left, only the Ginger seemed to escape unharmed and quickly dragged the other two behind a concrete pillar for cover.  
Ryz clearly pissed off my his lead enema leaned around the pillar and fired at Brownmans hiding spot, whatever customisations had been done to that monstrous pistol were clearly powerful as it blew through the marble banister and into the calf of Brownman who gritted his teeth and kept sniping.  
Mogar was able to unleash another grenade that detonated against the pillar in a shower of concrete chips but it held, return fire from Butch hit him in the forearm, shattering one of the bones and leaving it next to useless.  
“Shit, the cops are here” Came Gavinos voice over the coms “And it looks like they brought the fucking army, I see tanks out there”  
“Everyone stay where you are” ordered the Boss, “Cops will come in the front, the Sinners will be trapped between us and them, they’ll be slaughtered then we can escape, We’ve all got away from 5 stars before”  
The rest of the crew weren’t happy but they held their positions as they saw the cops assemble out front, but if they though the cops were going to storm the building they were wrong, instead they drove the tank straight into the foyer  
There was an explosion of sound as the metal monster slammed into the glass, shattering it into a million pieces that were flung all over the foyer. Everyone instinctually ducked for cover except for the Ginger who said something to Butch and Continuum before making a mad dash across the atrium towards Mogars hiding spot.  
Fire from the police chased him and Mogar was forced down as to rise would be suicide, the Gingers vest absorbed the stray rounds, until he reached the opposite side of Mogars cover, he leapt over it in a swan dive but was caught Midair through the back by a shot from Brownman.  
He fell heavily to the ground with a roar of pain but still managed to roll and come to a sitting position, gun aimed at Mogar. Time froze, Mogar had two options, either do nothing and get killed by the Ginger or fire his grenade launcher and kill them both. In the end he had the choice made for him as the Ginger aimed his gun and squeezed the trigger. Mogar closed his eyes, knowing his time had come.  
One gunshot, two gunshots then... nothing.  
Mogar opened his eyes and saw the same scene as before, the Ginger bleeding from a hole in his chest, sitting up aiming a Gun at his head, no, past his head. Mogar turned and saw two dead cops slumped over his cover either side, he’d been so focused on the Ginger he hadn’t even noticed them.  
“Thanks” he growled at thee Ginger who simply coughed up blood and wheezed “Don’t mention it” before crawling behind the cover of the teller booths over where the Boss was.  
“You did that to cover for your crew didn’t you?” asked the boss with sincerity looking down at the dyeing man, Mogar looked back to where they had been as saw that sure enough the rest of the Sinners had vanished leaving blood trails out a side door and a lot of cops  
“Yeah I did, distracted the cops well enough, and your little sniper” the groaned as he struggled to his feet, his voice had the bubbly wet sound that only comes from a lung filling with blood. “But I think we’re all in the shit now”  
The cops had reached the barricade and there was simply too many of them. They were a flood, a human tide of bullets and aggression.  
“Fall back” called the Boss finally drawing his pistol and firing a few rounds at the cops who were getting behind their cover. Mogar blew ragged holes in their numbers as he fired his grenade launcher one handed, Brownman picked up the bleeding Jack and made for the chopper on the roof.  
“It’s no use boss” we’re not going to make it” said Gavino rushing out of his position in the back room, before squarking as he saw the Ginger standing next to his boss, He tried to rais his gun but even with a 50caliber hole in the chest the Ginger was still faster, he covered the distance between them in the time it took Gavino to get off one, wide round before he was grabbed by the forehead and had the back of his head smashed into the wall behind him.  
Gavino slid down the wall leaving a small line of blood as he slipped out of consciousness.  
“Sorry about that” coughed the Ginger, the movement making his condition worse. “He was going to kill me”  
“Well you left him alive, and saved Mogar so you can go if you can get up and walk away” said the Boss. The Ginger didn’t reply he merely straightened his back and walked through the door Gavino had just come through and out of this fight.  
“Boss back to the matter at hand” urged Mogar “There’s too many of these fuckers we need to leave now, we have the armoured Limo out back, let’s get to it quick”  
“Ok, I’ll take Gavin, you go grab the Vagabond” The boss said picking up Gavin and throwing him over his shoulder, Mogar went to go help the Vagabond, who was struggling to rise, the bullet had grazed along his scalp leaving a bloody grove through both his mask and scalp. But was blocked by the sea of cops that was flooding between them; he was forced back through the door by a hail of bullets but stopped there with the Boss to try and hold them off till they could save the Vagabond.  
“Go” growled the Vagabond over their coms, his voice layered with hate and menace  
“Where not leaving you” Replied the Boss as he fired into the faces of the nearest 3 cops  
“I’m already dead, there’s no saving me, NOW GO, SAVE YOURSELVES I”LL BUY YOU TIME” The Vagabond roared, surging to his feet and unloading his MG into the backs of those cops foolish enough to run past him towards the Boss and Mogar “Vagabond, VAGA... RYAN COME BACK” the Boss screamed into his mic but the line was dead, either he had pulled it out or turned it off, either way Ryan was deaf to their pleas as he burst from his hiding place, Vaulting cover and firing into the crowd as he rushed towards the tank in the building. The tank tried to bring its cannon to bear on him but he was too close, it fired into the floor sending, Marble, wood, concrete and bits of cop in all directions. The Vagabond was caught at the edge of the blast and thrown against the body of the tank cracking a few ribs, through the pain he began to climb, trying to reach the top of the tank even as the surrounding cops and soldiers opened fire. The hull became a storm of impact sparks but whatever luck was left was on his side as he made it to the top with only a few extra bullet holes. Once there he primed a grenade, opened the command hatch and threw the grenade inside before kicking the hatch closed and standing on it until the explosion reisolated through the hull. By this time the cops and soldiers had cleared the immediate area as a second tank from outside brought its gun to bear, Raising its cannon to point at shell of the first tank Ryan only had time to look straight into Mogar’s eyes before the cannon roared and he was no more. “RYAN” Mogar yelled at the flaming pillar, tears in his eyes. He began to move towards it but a strong arm dragged him back “WE HAVE TO GO” the Boss shouted in his ear but Mogar wasn’t listening “He can’t be dead, not him, nothing in this world can stop a monster like him” he was babbling now, grief and denial destroying his coherency “LOOK AT ME” the Boss ordered as he pulled Mogars head round to face him, he then put his forehead against Mogars and looked straight into his eyes, Mogar couldn’t help but notice the Bosses were shining with tears too “He died so we could escape, if you just sit here and get killed or captured by the cops then his death is meaningless, now get up and RUN” His words sobered Mogar enough that he was able to help drag Gavino out the back door and into the waiting Limo, even with the minigun turret and armour it was still the roughest escape they’d ever had and by the end both the Boss and Mogar were sporting fresh bullet holes when they finally shook the cops and disappeared into the mountain foot hills to meet with Jack and Brownman who had escaped in a chopper. “Where’s Ryan?” asked Brownman as he limped over half supporting Jack, whose neck injured had proved to be luckily minor having missed the veins and arteries and so had been patched up in the chopper “He... he didn’t make it” The Boss replied meekly looking down “What? Was it the ASSholes, THOSE MOTHER FUCKERS I’LL KILL THEM ALL” exploded Brownman brandishing his sniper but wincing as he miss stepped onto his bad leg “No it was the cops, he brought us time to escape and got shot by a tank” clarified Mogar through a dry throat “Ryan dead? Doesn’t really seem possible, thought he could of scared off the reaper. Hell if that tank had been a little off its aim i bet he would have found a way to make it scream” Jack tried to laugh but misery made it into a choking sob. “Doesn’t seem real” agreed Gavino “Always thought the world would end before a monster like him disappeared” They all stood in silence for a few minutes of shared grief, suddenly it all became very real to them, sure they’d all been in bad spots before but they’d always pulled through even if it hurt but now the impossible had happened, one of them was dead and not just any of them but Ryan. Ryan had been so solid and powerful more a primeval terror than a man the sort of monster who had always been and would still be around long after the world had turned to ash, The fact that he had died made them all confront their mortality and it wasn’t a pretty sight “So what’s the next move Boss? Back after the Sinners?” asked Mogar at length turning to the Boss for guidance as he so often had in the past “No, we can’t afford another fight like that, we call got shot, Ryan died if we keep having fights like that with the Sinners well rip each other apart until were weak enough that the city will finish us off, remember every jackass with a gun and no moral compass wants what we have, if we’re too weak to stay on top then we’ll be dragged down” “So what do we do?” “We recover, lick our wounds. We’ll probably also have to do something big soon so that people see were still strong enough to hold this city. As for the Sinners maybe some kind of true could be reached...” “A truce? Bollocks, their scum and I don’t want to see them in our city ever again” squawked Gavino in outrage rubbing the back of his head “Look I don’t like it any more than you do but like I said if we keep fighting them even if we win we’ll be left sitting ducks. Today at least one of them showed they could be reasonable so I want to explore this avenue before we commit to another war” the Boss finished sounding exhausted There were mutterings and unhappy noises from the group but the Boss was the boss and what he said went, it was his judgment that had lead them to owning Los Santos and as much as none of them would admit it they knew he was right, all out war would only lead to the death of both gangs. “Gavino, I want you to find a way to contact them and then organise a meeting for 2 weeks, set it somewhere neutral and semi public so they know we’re not trying to pull anything. We need this to work.” Two weeks later The Sinners arrived on time, entering without weapons drawn but still fanning out in to cover all angles, they were clearly on edge expecting some sort of trap but the fact they came at all betrayed the fact that they had come to the same conclusion as Geoff. Now it was time to see if a truce was even possible. “Welcome gentlemen” greeted the Boss from where he was sitting at one end of a long table, the only piece of furniture in the room except for the chairs around it. Mogar and Brownman sat either side of him while Jack and Gavino stood back against the wall behind him. “Please have a seat” Ryz grunted by way of answer but took the seat at the opposite end of the table to the Boss, Dojo guy and the Ginger fell into the seats next to him while Butch, Continuum and the Major stood against the back wall, so that the two opposing gangs were mirroring each other. The agreement had been to come unarmed but neither gang had adhered to it, however the fact there had been no weapons drawn yet was a good sign. “I’ll cut straight to the point then” Geoff growled already growing tired of Ryz’s disrespectful attitude “We’re here to try and prevent a war that will see both our gangs destroyed, simple fact that you showed up today means you must have come to the same conclusion. So I ask you, How are we going to do this?” “Simple, we split the city in half, you keep one half we get the other, seem fair?” “Fair, that’s ridiculous, look you don’t even have the manpower to hold that much of the city, you’d need a much bigger rep than you have to keep the petty thugs in line, sure their mostly harmless on their own but in numbers they can drag even us down. No how about you keep what you already have? That’s a good chunk of the centre city, lots of cash in there” Ryz though for a moment before saying “You have a point but we still want a slice of the docks, need to be able to access the sea” “Agreed, you can have the first 4 docks, should be more than enough.” Ryz nodded in agreement before continuing “good, now I feel like we should have some ground rules, to help prevent another bloodbath” “What did you have in mind?” “Hospitals and houses are off limits no violence, hospitals because they constantly save our lives, hell without them we’d all still be nursing our wounds from two weeks ago and I don’t wanna see any of those guys getting killed because of our jackassery, and houses because we should all have at least one place we’re we can feel comfortable, without constantly watching for a knife in the back” “I can agree to that, but we should also agree to not interfere in each other’s jobs unless they started on the other crews turf, I don’t wanna have to avoid your area if I’m running from the cops for fear of being RPG’d, and on that matter if we run into each other outside of work lets agree to be civil, no point trying to start shit so the other guy breaks the rules” “Agreed and finally we need to address the elephant in the room, what happens if someone breaks these rules? Do we kill them?” “Hmmm” Geoff’s chin fell to his chest as he considered the options “I say if a member breaks these rules then they get turned over to the other gang to decide their punishment” Ryz considered this for a while before finally nodding in agreement “Yeah we can do that, lets shake on it” The two leaders and their entourages stood and shook hands sealing the new covenant of Los Santos, over the next few hours they hammered out the logistics of splitting the city while the crews tried to mingle and be “civil” but it was clear to see in the hard eyes and stiff movements that the losses of two weeks ago were to fresh to be completely forgotten, especially when they considered who was missing. Present Day “And that’s how the truce began” finished Mogar wrapping up the tale that he and the Ginger had been tagging of in telling. “And now that you and your little crew have become big time we expect you to uphold it as well” “S..sure” she stammered unused to being questioned as she had been listening to them talk for over an hour “But we don’t have any turf so by your rules we can’t do anything” “We’ll discuss that later at a meeting of the gangs but for now let’s drink, after a heavy story like that we could all use a pick me up” Said the Ginger raising his glass up “to the truce and to the fallen” They all cheers and downed their drinks “Now, let’s have some fun” purred the Ginger with a mischievous smile


	9. Hark Nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> About time

What followed was a night of heavy drinking and laughing, Gavino finally came out of his shell and started playing a game he called “Million dollars but..”  
“You get a million dollars but there is a snail somewhere in the world that is always after you and if it touches you, you die”  
“That’s a stupid question, I already have plenty of things more dangerous than a snail trying to kill me for a lot less than a million dollars, I’ll take the money” Scoffed the Ginger  
“Same here” agreed Barbara   
“Ditto” added Mogar  
“Yeah I guess do what we do that’s not really that bad” conceded Gavino “How about you get a guy who will buy you anything you want so you never have to spend money again but every time he does he gets to stick his finger up your bum for 2 seconds?”  
“I’d take that, I’ve done worse before” Smirked Mogar giving Gavino a meaningful look that was not lost on present company  
“And I would do anything for cash, but I won’t do that” sang the Ginger  
Barbara considered it before admitting “I’d do it, I fell like you’d get used to it, besides I’m a girl, guys want to do that all the time, at least this way I get something out of it”  
They all hooted with laughter before devolving into ever more weird and grotesque questions before after a few more drinks and some ordered food they started to make stupid bets.  
“Bet you 500 quid you can’t drink that bottle of barbecue sauce” Gavino bet Mogar pointing to the bottle of sauce that had come with his Barbecue   
“Done” Mogar said quickly grabbing the bottle and raising it to his lips.  
“Wait and you have to do it un under 5 minutes” Gavino quickly added  
Mogars response was to take a sip before muttering “You’re so fucked” then downing the whole bottle in less than 30 seconds  
The Ginger and Barbara cheered as Mogar slammed the now empty bottle down on the table and ordered Gavino to pay up, who did so reluctantly.  
“Alright, $1000 says that Gavino won’t lick each of the pool cues” Challenged the Ginger with a smirk in Gavinos direction. Gavino for his park started gagging and coughing at the mere idea  
“No way, that’s Minging” he choked  
“I’ll do it” offered Mogar with a shrug and after an agreement went over to the pool table and licked all the cues from the rack ignoring the sickened looks from the bar staff and the Bikers around the table as the Ginger and Barbara laughed and cheered while Gavino tried not to vomit.  
“Well earned” smiled the Ginger ass he slapped the money down in front of Mogar who grinned and stuffed the cash in his pocket.  
“Now it’s my turn, I bet you 2 grand that you won’t go over there and hit on the bikers” Mogar gestured over to the bikers clustered around the pool table who were still looking at them with disgust.  
“Too easy” The Ginger downed the last of his 7th drink before springing to his feet, knocking the table a bit as he did, then he ran his fingers through his hair, straightened his jacket and with a flash of teeth and raise of the eyebrows strutted over to the pool table  
“This should be good” whispered Mogar as the Ginger walked straight up behind the biggest, baddest, beardiest biker of the lot obviously the leader, slapped him on the ass and whispered something inaudible into his ear  
“THE FUCK DID YOU SAY” roared the biker, rounding on the Ginger in pure fury, the other bikers stopped their game and moved to surround the two, nearly obscuring Barbara’s view of the confrontation.  
“I said do you want to come back to my place candy ass” The Ginger repeated with a small air kiss his voice dripping with confidence and amusement could be easily heard now as the music had been stopped as all eyes turned to the sorry bastard who was dumb enough to flirt with the head of the gang beast bikers.  
The Biker went beet red with fury before exploding “ARE YOU FUCKING RETARDED OR SOMETHING I’M ADAM FUCKING ELLIS, LEADER OF THE GANG BEASTS, WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TO DO THIS TO ME” Adam drew back his fist and threw a punch at the Ginger who rather than turn it away simply caught and stopped it mid air.  
Adam was stunned enough that he didn’t react as the Ginger leaned in to whisper directly into his ear “The Ginger, Second in command of the Alpha Street Sinners, That’s who I think I am” In the dead silent bar even his whisper carried to where Barbara was sitting and she saw the color blanch out of Adams face at the words.  
“Th. Th.th. the Ginger” he stammered looking at the Ginger with fresh eyes, going even whiter with every recognised feature “Sir I had no idea it was you, I’m sorry”  
“It’s quite alright” the Ginger replied dismissively  
“Umm, if its ok could I please not go home with you? I have a wife and daughter and they’d rather I didn’t go home with men” he begged staring at the Gingers feet  
The Ginger at this point couldn’t hold it in any more and cracked up, hugging his sides and bending near double he was laughing so hard, the bikers eyed him with suspicion and fear thinking him gone completely mad.  
“Yes. Yes that’s fine” he finally stammered out as his merriment began to subside “I ‘m not actually into guys, You my friend just helped me win a bet” he clapped a hand on Adams shoulder and pointed over at the table to Mogar who raised his beer in acknowledgment   
Adam went if anything even paler “is that...”  
“Yeah, that’s Mogar, Gavino too and Yellow, you may not have heard of her yet but you will”  
Adam didn’t know how to respond as he realised he had been used as a play thing the two most dangerous men in the city, he looked from one to the other like a stunned fish before finally swallowing and ordering “Beasts lets go” and marching out of the bar trying to stop his legs from shaking as the more dangerous gangsters laughed at him and the music was turned back on.  
The Ginger walked back to their table and took a bow ass they laughed and clapped before sliding back in next to Barbara and getting his payment from Mogar  
“Worth every penny, that was funny, it looked like he was going to piss his pants”  
“Yeah, I’m surprised he has a wife and kid though, I could absolutely see him in a pair of assless chaps”  
“Would of help when he shit himself” Barbara added causing them all to resume laughing.  
“Alright I have one, Gavino $500 says you won’t go touch that pretty girl at the bar on the back with your nose” Barbara dared once they had all calmed down  
“Jesus do you hate her or something? He’ll crush her spine” Mogar added holding back a laugh.  
“Haha I have a big nose, you on” Gavino got up and walked up behind the dark haired Hispanic woman at the bar, she looked to be Mexican in decent and wore an open backed red dress that showed off her well toned shoulders, Gavino hesitated a moment before leaning down and planting his Titanic snoz between her shoulder blades.  
Her reaction was instant, with a whirl of gossamer hair she spun around on her stool and slapped Gavino across the face, he squawked in alarm as he fell dumbly onto his rump and the beautiful Mexican bore down on him.  
“What’s your problem?” she demanded one hand straying to where he had touched her on the back “Touching me on the back with your dick like that”  
“What?” Gavin was momentarily stunned before he realised that the height combined with the size of his nose had made her think he had touched her with a different part of his anatomy.  
“No, No. No It was my...”  
“Hey Babe, is this guy bothering you” came a low base rumble as suddenly there was a muscular man with brown hair and sparkling eyes standing next to the Mexican.  
“What.. no.. I..” Gavino squeaked becoming flustered and waving his hand back and forth as he was entirely ignored  
“Yeah, he came up behind me and poked me in the back with his dick Tyler” she explained to the muscular man “Tyler”  
“What, No body does that but me” Tyler growled bearing down on Gavino who was scrambling backwards so overwhelmed he had resorted to nonsense words and noises  
“I should probably go save him” Mogar sighed to the giggling pair has Gavino ran out of space, bumping into a booth and scrunching down as Tyler caught up with him.  
Tyler dragged Gavino back up by his shirt and cocked his fist back to punch the babbling Brit when he felt a strong hand grab his elbow.  
“Let go of me” Tyler growled at Mogar angered by the interruption  
“Look man I’m sorry for my friend, he’s and idiot with a big dumb nose that he poked your girl in the back with not his dick lay off him and I’ll buy you both a drink”  
Tyler looked from Gavino to Mogar then back to the Mexican still sitting by the bar, she gave a slight tilt of her head signalling Tyler to shove Gavino back to the ground  
“Don’t worry about the drink, we were just leaving. Come on babe lets go break another headboard”   
The Mexican beauty joined him and they both walked out together but before they had vanished entirely they saw her move closer to him and his hand drop to her ass, then they were gone into the night.  
“Who were they?” Barbra asked after the mysterious duo had disappeared  
“No idea, every so often this city breads badasses who don’t try to make names for themselves. I guess their some of them” the Ginger responded distractedly still watching the exit. He was only snapped out of it when Mogar appeared back at their table half carrying Gavino.  
“Gavino smacked the back of his head when that guy pushed him to the floor, I’m gonna take him to get checked out so were leaving”  
“Yeah this place is dying out and it’s already 2am, I think I might head out too” the Ginger responded finishing his drink before moving to Gavinos other side so the barley conscious Brit was hanging between them  
“I might as well go to then, nothing funs gonna happen here” Barbara added joining them as they left ignoring the glares the bar staff were shooting them after scaring away so many customers  
In a show of trust Mogar left Gavino with the Ginger and Barbara as he went to go get his car insisting he was ok to drive “I’ve escaped 4 stars drunker than this, just driving home is too easy”.  
Barbara stood against the bar wall as the Ginger helped to load Gavino into the passenger’s seat, once he was strapped in the Ginger tried to stand up but a gentle but firm grip on his arm stopped him. The Ginger stared into Mogars eyes as Mogar told him “Look dude, you saved my life once so I’m going do you a favour, I saw the way she looks at you when she thinks you’re not paying attention, don’t miss out on a good thing, she likes you back dude”  
If this news was a revelation to him the Ginger didn’t show it, he just gently pulled away and closed the door to the car then stood unmoving as Mogar said his farewells and drove away.  
Barbara walked up next to him before nudging his arm with her shoulder, “Hey, what was that about what did he say?” she asked looking up into his mirrored gaze.  
“Nothing, just some last minute smack talk, we are different crews after all” he replied looking down at her with a grin but Barbara had known him long enough to tell from his face that he was looking at her intently, like he was searching for something he wasn’t sure was there   
Having his intense gaze focused on her made Barbara slightly uncomfortable, she found it hard to look at him and she felt a blush rise to her cheeks, she wrung her hand before trying to defuse the situation.  
“Do you really flirt like you did with that biker in the bar? Cause that would NEVER work with a real woman” she laughed shoving him slightly  
Like that the spell was broken and he responded in mock outrage “Of course I don’t flirt like that, that was a joke for Mogar, trust me you can’t handle my flirting”  
“Oh really why don’t you put your money where your mouth is, $300 says you can’t flirt for shit” she challenged waving the money at him  
The Ginger caught her wrist and gently lowered her hand, “No Barbara, in there everyone did a dare except for you” his voice the most sultry she’d ever heard, with his other had he removed his glasses so he was staring into her with passion in his brilliantly green eyes “So I have a dare you.”  
“Kiss me”  
Months of tension all boiled down to this moment, Barbara gave in to it all as she let herself be drawn forward into his arms and into a passionate kiss, his full lips were rough against her, he tasted of coke and whiskey, a taste that only got stronger as their tongues intertwined, she could smell his aftershave and beneath that the faint traces of gunpowder and stale sweat. To many to wouldn’t have seemed perfect, he was too rough, the height difference to great, she was too stiff but to Barbara in that moment it was the best feeling in the world.  
After what felt like nowhere near enough time he broke off the kiss and whispered in her ear “I think you owe me $300” she slapped his chest thinking this all part of her bet but the thought disappeared when he nibbled her earlobe making her go weak at the knees  
She pulled his head away and brought it to face her, he looked at her with confusion and what appeared to be a little fear like maybe he’d misread the whole situation but that feeling was quashed as they locked lips once again. Feeling Barbara straining to reach his face the Ginger cupped her ass in his hands and lifted her up to meet him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and without breaking the kiss he walked them away from prying eyes down the side of the bar.  
Barbara ran her hands through his hair, drawing his head towards hers as they deepened the kiss, mouths desperately questing to find a way to express the yearning deep within both of them. He put her back up against the building and moved closer pressing against each other, his hands ran up her thighs and started to lift her shirt but as much as she wanted to take him right then and there she had to stop.  
He made a disappointed whimpering noise as she grabbed his hands to stop him but when she said “Not here, my place” he perked back up, gave her a final deep kiss before taking her by the hand and rushing off towards his car.  
“Are you ok to drive? Maybe we should get a cab” she laughed caught up in the rush of his enthusiasm  
He laughed back “You think Mogar is the only one who can drive after a few drinks? I’m more than able and a cab is too slow”  
They ran to his car, excitement lending them speed as they clambered into the front and took off at max speed, after waiting so long they didn’t want to wait a second longer than they had too. True to his word the Ginger drove with all the skill he had, avoiding crashes as Barbara’s whispers of all the things she was going to do to him drove him to drive ever faster.  
In no time at all they were pulling into the underground car park of Barbara apartment building and no sooner were they out of the car than they were all over each other, kissing passionately as their hands explored each other’s bodies, from their sparing they knew each other’s bodies but now they ran their hands over those familiar lines and curves with a new lust filled excitement until the sound of a car unlocking startled them into rushing upstairs to Barbara’s apartment.  
Barbara fumbled with the keys at the door as the Ginger stood right behind her running his hands down her stomach as she grinded against him, she go the door open and lead the way inside, closing the door by pushing the Ginger up against it.  
They set upon each other in frenzy, never breaking lip contact Barbara ran her hands up the Gingers stomach feeling his abs as he unzipped and removed her jumper and vest. When it came to her shirt rather than break off their kiss to pull it off he simply tore it open.  
“What the fuck, that was expensive” she exclaimed taking a step back  
“It was in the way” he replied meekly “I’ll buy you a new one”  
“No.. I think you just need to catch up” she said playfully pouncing on him and tearing his shirt off exposing his own muscular chest.  
He laughed and picked her up like her had earlier, her bra pressed against his chest just like her lips pressed against his as he carried her over to the table, she sat on the table as they kissed some more while he undid her belt then separated as he stepped back taking her jeans with him.  
Barbara propped herself up on her elbows and watched the Ginger drink in the sight of her in just her bra and panties, she could see a bulge forming in pants but he made no move to free it, instead he dropped to his knees, in between her legs.  
He pulled off her panties, placed a small kiss on her clit before setting to work, alternating between longer lick, quick little flicks of his tongue and the occasional suck, Barbara soon found herself a moaning mess under his attentions, moaning she pulled her breasts out of her bra and began kneading them, while the Ginger had added his hands into the mix, using first one but eventually building up to three fingers in her sopping wetness.   
It wasn’t until his hand snaked up her thigh, over her toned stomach to cup her breast, pinch her nipple and give it a slight twist that she was thrown over the edge into the throes of one of the most powerful orgasms of her life.  
“Oh Fuck” she screamed as her back arched until only her ass and shoulders remained in contact with the table as she moaned her pleasure for the world to hear, The Ginger didn’t let up in his attentions but rode it out with her using his skills to tease out the sensation while her legs clamped around his head.  
As she came down from her intense shuddering climax, Barbara stood on shaky legs and faced her lover, “I think your a little behind” she smiled eyeing up his pants and the sizable bludge they were struggling to contain. He laughed and made to reply but was silenced by Barbara’s lips on his own as she kissed him deeply the taste of her own sweet juices adding a new erotic facet that made her even more wild and ready. She put her hands on his chest and without breaking the kiss walked him backwards into her bedroom.  
She pushed him back onto the bed and stood over him as she removed her bra, even though her breast had been fully visible before, there was something exhilarating about being fully naked with him for the first time, and judging by the way his eyes roved over her body and the bludge in his pants grew she could tell that he agreed.  
Barbara crawled up the bed between his legs till she was level with his belt which she unclasped with a wink, before pulling off his jeans and boxers in a single tug revealing for the first time the Gingers cock in all its majesty, it was in a word perfect, just the right size, not shaved but well trimmed Barbra could feel herself getting excited again. She bit her lip and looked at it hungrily eliciting a faint chuckle from the Ginger before she leaned down and gave the head a few quick swipes of her tongue tasting the saltiness.  
Without further ceremony Barbra took the head of his dick into her mouth swirling her tongue around the tip in the way all guys like and was rewarded with a moan from the Ginger, her confidence building Barbra began to move down the shaft, bobbing her head and taking a little more each time, he was fairly large so it took a few bobs but eventually she managed to reach the base, gagging slightly as her chin rested against his warm balls, Barbra stayed that way for a moment glowing in her moment of triumph before pulling back and popping off the dick with a wet sucking sound, a small string of saliva still connecting the two  
Barbra placed a kiss right on the tip and tried to take it in again but was stopped by the Ginger hand oh her chin, he gently but firmly pulled her up his body until they were face to face at which point he moaned into her ear in a deep breathy voice “I think we’re ready, let’s not beat around the bush”  
Barbara was still processing the pun he had just made when she felt his cock rubbing against her moist slit, with a shudder of pleasure she slowly sat back, using one hand to guide him in and the other for balance, she finally began to fuck the Ginger, It was better than she had imagined, he could read her body like a book, when her legs got tired from riding cow girl he picked up the pace and began to thrust into her, his hands were constantly exploring finding new and exciting ways to tease her and please her even as she rode out her second orgasm for the night, however it wasn’t until he picked her up and took her to the wall that the angle got just right that he could hit her G-spot with nearly every thrust quickly bringing about a third orgasm.  
From there he carried her back to the bed where he laid her on her back and took her missionary style, hypnotised by the bouncing of her immaculate breasts he just had to taste her in that moment, he lay down on top of her his lips finding hers even as he continued to fuck her like no man ever had before. As the kiss broke off she was approaching her 4th orgasm, breathing became difficult as the waves of pleasure pounding through her body began to peak so it was in a breathless voice that she whispered “I love you”  
Barbra let out a small whimper half disappointment and half fear as the Ginger stopped his pounding and looked down at beautiful blonde with the messed up hair, her face was sweaty and her cheeks were coloured a deep pink from the exertion but to him she was the most beautiful woman in the world. “I love you too” he replied kissing her deeply and resuming his thrusts until they came together in romance novel unison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well its about time those two bumped uglies and I got to write some good old fashioned smut  
> Got any advice on how to write or ideas for where this fic should go fro here or even for a new fic let me know, I;m still really new to this and I love any advice


	10. Black and Yellow

Barbara awoke and immediately felt that something was wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She was in her same old apartment, looking at her same old ceiling, listening to her same old alarm in her same old empty bed...  
Empty bed  
No that wasn’t right, her head hurt because of the drinks from the night before but she was sure that she hadn’t been alone, she’d been with .. him. They’d made love... no those weren’t the right words... they’d fucked into the wee hours of the morning then the Ginger had stayed sleeping on the wet spot like a perfect gentleman even though after their time together it was harder to find the dry spot, either way shed fallen asleep using his chest as a pillow as he softly played with her hair, but now she was alone.  
She felt the first fluttering of unease in her stomach but quickly crushed it, he was probably up making her breakfast, wanted to surprise her in bed , that was all. Dragging the blanket with her as a makeshift robe to fight off the morning cold Barbara wandered out of her bedroom and into the kitchen/ living area but found it empty, if he was getting breakfast he was out buying it.  
She set about looking for her pants and thus phone to call him, noticing that all his clothes were missing from her floor when she saw the note. It was on her kitchen counter, the same place he had dined on her last night. It sat upon the folded but still torn remnants of her blouse from the night before. She walked over and looked at it, the cover simply said “Barbara”.  
She picked it up not caring for the $100 note fell out as she opened it and read the message contained within:  
Dear Barbara  
I am so sorry. This never should have happened  
It’s not you it’s me, I’ve been here before and it only ends badly  
Try to stay off Sinners turf, I can’t hold them back anymore   
-Lord Ginger  
p.s. Sorry about the shirt. Hope this covers it  
Barbara let the note slip from her hand and fall back to the counter, a pit seemed to form in her stomach as she processed the words. He had told her that he loved her now he was gone with a short note and a flimsy excuse.   
She didn’t know what to do, she backed up against the fridge and slid down it to the floor. Her mind was racing “Had he used her?”, “Had this been his plan all along?”, “Was he really a fuck boy?”, “Was this a set up?”, “Was he kidnapped?”, “what was she going to do?”. That combined with the plethora of emotions rage, sadness, violation and emptiness sent her into a tail spin of depression that left her out of ideas.   
She tried calling him a few times but he never picked up, she needed someone to talk to but she didn’t want anyone to know about their relationship, that left a very short list of people, the Ginger and herself were the only definite, then there was Gavino and Mogar who might have an idea but she had no idea how to contact and doubted they would be much help and that was it.  
Wait no there might be one more, that night after the clean bank heist she had told Meg about her feelings, of course she had been fall down drunk at the time and might not remember but it was worth a shot.  
“Hey Babs, what’s up?” came Megs chipper voice after she finally picked up  
“Hey, do you remember that time we had the bonfire and you were super drunk...”  
“and you told me you had feelings for the ginger? Yeah I remember”  
“Yeah, well last night he and I might of had sex”  
“OOOH girl, You at your place? Stay right there I’m on my way I want to hear all the dirty details. Umph this is gonna be goooood”  
The line went dead as Meg hung up so Barbara decided to wait on the couch and try not to think about him much until Meg got there.

“Heeeey” bubbled Meg in her obscenely upbeat tone, pulling Barbara into a hug before brushing past her into the apartment.  
“Meg  
“So tell me everything, length? Girth? Number of pepperoni slices? Was it good? Was it quick?” She gestured to Barbaras bedroom “Scene of the crime?”  
“Meg”  
Ignoring her entirely Meg walked straight through the door and into the bedroom, “Whoah, you need to air this place out. Smells like a brothel at the end of winter”  
“MEG” Barbara shouted to get her friends attention  
Meg reappeared through the doorway and for the first time noticed the how distraught and unkempt Barbara was looking.  
“What’s the matter?” she asked gently, wordlessly Barbara handed her the Ginger note, which Meg quickly read.  
“Oh honey” Meg pulled Barbara into a tight hug that broke through the numbness that Barbara had been feeling and into the chasm of sadness beyond  
Tears began to fall from her eyes “Why would he do this? Wasn’t I pretty enough? Was it all about the sex? Should I have been better in bed?”, the questions came in a strangled tirade as Meg lead her back to the couch trying to comfort her as much as she could  
“Shhh shh shh, First off your Vagina should never have to go any percent, your amazing so it’s not a problem with you it’s a problem with him, he might be a fuck boy but he didn’t seem the type”   
“What should I do?” Barbra asked with a sniff  
“Well whatever his issue is its all on him. Right now we need to cheer you up so what were going to do is get a blanket, Not the one from your bed because it seems a bit moist, a whole bunch of ice cream and all the trash T.V we can find, then were gonna lay here on this couch while you tell me everything that happened and we have some girl talk”   
Sometime later Barbara was on the couch in her PJs, sharing a blanket with Meg and scooping mint choc chip straight from the tub and feeling a little better. “So” Meg asked between bites “What happened?”  
Slowly Barbara told Meg about everything that had happened the night before, from the drug den, to the bar, then to the sex. “He even offered to sleep on the wet patch and I fell asleep under his arm as he played with my hair. When I woke up he was gone and that note and my ripped shirt was all that he left” she finished  
“Hmmm well that explains the P.S., I already knew about the rest of the stuff with Fake AH and the Sinners, my BF told me about that but still its strange he would spend months helping us and getting to know us just to run away after one night of admittedly excellent sex” Meg pondered, pouting as she thought  
Snapping out of her deliberations she exclaimed “Well I guess the reason doesn’t matter overly much just that it happened. Now its getting late so I’m going to order Pizza and I want you to start thinking of revenge plans” she bounced up and went to the phone always so positive and chipper, Barbara couldn’t help but feel cheered up by the purple haired woman’s mere presence   
They spent the next 20 minutes discussing plans to get Revenge on the Ginger these included but were not limited to: killing him, cutting off his balls, blowing up his cars, ruining his heists, finding then burning down his apartment, beating him up, placing a bounty on him, shaving his head, hacking his life invader, smashing his Xbox and trying to get him kicked out of his crew  
“Oh that’s a good one. If the Sinners found out how much he had been helping a rival gang I’m sure they’d be pissed” Barbara grinned up at Meg, all the ideas were merely blowing off steam, as mad as she was Barbara wasn’t about to go making an enemy of one of the city’s most dangerous men, besides this was all to make her feel better and it was working, even though she still felt the cold ache of rejection deep down  
It was at that moment the doorbell rang  
“I’ll get it, it’s probably the pizza” said Barbara grabbing her purse as she walked to the front door  
“Chicken and mushroom?” she asked as she pulled the door open and was greeted by the gleaming barrels of a shot gun.  
Time froze.  
Barbra could see in great detail every scratch and imperfection along the guns entire length, she could also see the man holding it at shoulder height, white, muscular, wearing body armour over a hoddie with the sleeves torn off and a strange white half mask that covered his eyes but not his mouth, more importantly she could see he was pulling the trigger  
She threw herself to the ground letting gravity take her ass the gun went off with a deafening roar, the bullets tearing through the space her head had been less than a second ago, she’d be dead if it wasn’t for the fact that her would be killer had made a mistake. He should of hip shot that hoe.  
As he tried to readjust his aim Barbara lashed out, punching him in the crouch with all the considerable strength she could muster, it had the desired effect causing him to crumple like a leaf bringing his head down to her level. She grabbed him by the collar and dragged him inside, throwing him so he lay with his back propped up against the wall.  
“Who sent you?” she demanded, she could tell this guy was a grunt by the way he’d held his gun. “Who do you work for?”  
The grunt grinned and opened his mouth to reply but a squealed warning from Meg caught her attention, she threw herself to the right just as another would be killer rounded the door and fired at her, thanks to Megs alert she avoided the buckshot but the grunt wasn’t so lucky, catching the slug full in the head and chest his story ended their on her living room floor.   
Barbara rounded on her newest assailant just in time to see Meg fall upon him. With brutal efficiency she forced the gun barrel down then drove the stock up full in to the face of the masked man, breaking his nose and causing him to lose his grip on the gun as he fell back. For a moment Meg pointed the gun at the groaning man before sending him to sleep with a quick bash from the stock.  
“Who the fucks are these guy Black?” asked Barbara instinctively using Megs code name during the heat of combat  
“Bad news Yellow” Black replied “We need to get out of here there’s gonna be a lot more coming.”  
“Wait, How do you know?”  
“I just do, trust me I’ll explain later but we NEED to move”  
Still discontent Yellow rushed into her bedroom grabbing two sets of body armour and her favourite shotgun before tossing one of the armours and the dead man’s double barrel to Black. “Quick put this on, we need to go”  
Black pulled on the armour on over her pyjamas before cracking open the gun and removing the cartages, “I’m not killing anyone but this thing will make a damn good club”  
Yellow rolled her eyes before leading her way out the front door and into the hall and a hail of fully automatic fire.  
“Fuck she cried ducking back as the door was turned to splinters next to her. “AT least 4 armed with MG’s at the end of the Hall, their trying to wait us out since were on the 5th floor. Fuck”  
“Don’t you have any way to clear them out?” asked Black  
“No I keep all my explosives at the hideout not here... Wait I think there’s tear gas under the sink, go check I’ll keep them busy”  
Barbra fired a few shots blindly around the corner as Black went to do as she was asked; she came back moments later with a canister of tear gas clutched in her hand.  
“Awesome, so on three I’m going to cover you and I want you to throw that at them, Ready? 3...2...1... Go”  
Yellow stepped fully around the corner and fired down the hall to the where the attackers were using the apartment opposite the stair well for cover. Three of them ducked back but one tried to shoot back only to be rewarded with a slug to the cranium. On queue Black swung out from behind her and tossed the canister, arching it perfectly so it passed through the door and into the apartment  
“Nice one” Yellow praised Black as they ducked back into Barbaras apartment, in the couple of seconds it would take for the gas to take effect they wrapped wash clothes over their mouths to try and prevent falling for their own trick before storming the hall.  
When they heard coughing from hall they stormed out Yellow leading the way and black following, the first person they saw was another grunt in the same uniform as the others, he was on his hands and knees having crawled half way down the hall in search of clear air. Yellow ignored him entirely but Black smashed the stock of her stolen double barrel into the back of his skull knocking him out.  
The next was still standing, coughing and spluttering he staggered from the cloud using the right wall for support and trailing a katana from his left hand. This one Yellow dropped with a slug to the chest, the big solid round making a mockery of his armour and leaving a fist sized hole in his torso as he fell to the ground.  
The women braced themselves and headed into the cloud rushing for where they knew the door to the stairwell to be and almost tripping over the body of the final grunt that lay choking on his own spit in the middle of the floor, the white froth obscuring the rest of his face that wasn’t already covered by the mask.  
Yellow lead the way through the door, the cloud causing tears in her eyes and reducing visibility to only about a foot, so she only noticed the first of the reinforcements when he literally bumped into the end of her gun.  
They were both stunned for a moment then Yellow pulled the trigger on reflex, hurling the mans ragged corpse down the stairs. The next one was smarter though, he came in low and fast, getting inside the weapons reach and grabbing the gun from the side.  
Barbara wrestled back and forth with the man, each trying to gain control of the gun but neither gaining the upper hand, dimly she was aware of a commotion happening around her but all her focus was on trying to turn the barrel towards her adversary but it was taking too long, if another of theme joined in the struggle she’d be finished.  
Snarling she dragged the two of them around so her back was to the door way, this stairwell was one of the older designs, from the days when health and safety weren’t a factor when it came to building and thus hit has stairs around the perimeter wall and a 10 story drop straight down to in the centre. Her opponent learnt this to his peril when she released the gun they were struggling over and before he could bring it to bear she sent him tumbling over the railing into a death drop, Yellow heard him clang off the railing once before he came to a final bone shattering stop.  
Yellow glanced over the railing down at the shattered corpse and more importantly the 4 other grunts 4 flights down but advancing quickly. She turned away just in time to see Black finish off the last of the current group, kicking out his knees then knocking him senseless against the railing  
“You really need to get over your whole no killing thing” Yellow said as she flicked one of the grunts discarded SMG’s into her hands with her foot, “It makes things so much easier, look” With that she leaned over the railing and opened up on the group of grunts now just to stories below them. Caught in the open since yellow had the height advantage, they were torn to shreds and fell where they were without even a retaliatory shot.  
Yellow raised a knowing eyebrow as she swapped for a loaded weapon but Black just rolled her eyes “I don’t want to be a killer Yellow, I told you this when we started this whole thing. I’ve seen enough people die without adding to the tally myself, if you wanna kill? Go ahead, but I won’t”  
“I know, I know” Yellow conceded as she lead the way down the stairwell and into the underground car park, gun up and scanning for any more enemies  
“Look clea...” she started before she was cut off by an explosion that rocked the whole building, it started at her car and travelled over the other parked vehicles, detonating them into a rolling fireball that threw Yellow off her feet and back into the stairwell.   
Pain burst behind her eyes as her head hit the concrete and dull ringing swallowed all other noise, dimly she was aware of Black beating out the fires on her pants and screaming something illegible to her. She saw all this in a detached way, like it was happening to someone else, she saw her friend Black start dragging her up the stairs away from the fire, she saw that even now she managed to hold onto the gun with mostly limp fingers, she smelt the burnt cloth and singed hair as if it was toast in the morning.  
Suddenly it all rushed back into focus, she was herself again, limping up the stairs leading the way past Black at out the front door. Physically shaking off the mental fog she begain to think “My cars gone, need to get away, no air support, the enemy had to get here some how, that means cars and decent ones, Outside”  
“We need to get outside, find a car and get out of here” she said to Black as they made their way to the emergency exit on the ground floor  
“There will be more of them”  
“I know but not much else we can do”  
Black had no further argument so without further ado they burst out the door and into the night. Nothing greeted them, just a 3 empty black and red muscle cars.  
“I guess this is how the others got here, our lucky break” Grinned Black in her unbeatably upbeat way  
“Don’t let your guard down, you drive I’ll shoot” Yellow countered sliding across the hood of the nearest car to get in the passenger’s seat as black dived into the drivers, hot wired the ignition and took off.  
They roared out down the road quickly piling on speed while keeping an eye out for a seemingly nonexistent pursuit.  
“Maybe they only sent 12? 3 groups of 4 for 2 little girls? I can see how some fuckwit would think that” Yellow said  
“No their smarter than that, they....”  
The armoured truck came out of a side road with no warning and perfect timing, crashing into the right hand side of their car it sent it flipping as they were tossed around like rag dolls in their seats.  
No sooner had the wreck of their car come to a rest than the doors of the armoured car slammed open and half a dozen more of the grunts spilled out t pull the barley conscious women out of their seats and into the armoured truck which then took off again, the whole thing had taken less that 10 seconds  
Barbara was slipping in and out of consciousness; she saw Meg dragged before a man in a Black suit with bright red (not Orange, Red) hair and a more ornate mask. She heard him say “Meg comes with me, as for this one, make an example of her, then leave the body somewhere it’ll be found”. She felt the truck stop as she was pushed out with 4 of the grunts.  
They were in an alley and as the truck sped off taking Meg and the important man with it they began laying into her, she tried to protect herself as best she could but her right arm wouldn’t move when she told it to. She curled into a ball and tried to weather the kicks and punches as best she could for what felt like hours.  
Eventually two of the grunts held her arms and dragged her into a kneeling position, holding her between them with her back to the alley mouth. The other two stood in front of her, one with his hands on the hilt of a sword, the other pointing an SMG at her face, she could see down the black abyss of the barrel  
“Any last words?” asked the one with the gun, his mouth pulling into a cruel smirk  
“NOOO”  
Moments later the gun went off, splattering blood, brains and blonde hair all over the alley wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please like or comment if you enjoyed it and if you have any questions feel free to ask


	11. Chase that feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Ginger goes to see Yellow and follows the path of destruction

*30 Minutes earlier*  
“YOU FUCKING COWARD, WHAT YOU JUST RUN AWAY? IS THAT IT? LEAVE A FLIMSY NOTE AND THEN LEAVE HER BEHIND? AND WHY? BECAUSE YOU WERE SCARED. SHIT, THAT IS PATHETIC”  
The mirror stared back at the Ginger with the same impotent rage he threw at it, waiting for an answer he knew his reflection couldn’t give.  
“Tell Me!” he roared, punching the mirror, shattering it and slicing his knuckles open.  
The Ginger looked at the blood running down his hand and felt his rage flow with it, leaving him feeling numb once more. Even the pain wasn’t enough to pierce the numb indifference that surrounded him.  
“God damn it Allen” he cursed with a deep sigh, as he set about tending to his hand as he began to muse, “That’s always the problem”. Ever since 4 years ago, ever since he’d lost her and taken his first life he’d been surrounded by a certain numbness. It wasn’t anything as simple as not caring, it was that he COULDN’T care. It was as if the world had been drained of its colour, leaving him in a grey existence. A world that just passed him by  
“At least I’ve had the rush”, he continued to muse as he wrapped the bandage, the clarity and vibrancy that came with extreme danger. The feeling dancing on the knife edge of life and death, when he was surrounded by people who wanted him dead or trying to escape the entire Los Santos police force on a stolen Sanchez, that was when the world got its colour back, so close to death was where he truly felt alive.  
But he never felt more alive than when he was with Barbara. When he was around her it was a bigger rush than being chased by the entire LS Military, he never wanted her to leave; it wasn’t just sexual either, although she was amazing, when he thought back to the night before. He remembered the feeling of her laying against him, warm and safe her head on his chest while he played with her hair more content than he could remember being in years. He hadn’t lied the night before, he did love her to the extent that a killer like him could love, which was exactly why he had to let her go.  
He finished tending to his hand and washed the blood down the sink before splashing his face and staring into the cracked mirror. “I’m toxic” he muttered and let the words hang, soaking in their truth as he packed away his medical supplies behind the mirror until he closed it and was again confronted by his own reflection  
“Everyone I get close to dies. My parents, her, my best friend, Brothy, Mr Green” Allen felt a rumble in his chest that was half chuckle half growl “Hell I’m surprised the rest of the Sinners have lasted this long”.  
He turned away from the mirror and caught a glimpse of the reaper tattoo on his back. “I can’t be with Barbara, it’ll only end badly, like it always does. But not like this, I owe her the truth and she deserves to hear it from Allan, not from the Ginger”  
Set on this new course of action Allen strode through his apartment with purpose, it was a pent house overlooking the construction site on Alta street, a construction that would never be finished as long as it threatened to block his view on the city beyond, it wasn’t the nicest apartment he could afford but it had its own style that he couldn’t deny. Going down the stairs to his bedroom he changed into a pair of jeans, threw on a white T-shirt and grabbed a black over shirt before setting off for her place in a nice but non-descript black BMW.  
As he made his way through the streets of Los Santos, trying to avoid unnecessary attention, he noticed a blotch of smoke in the sky. With a growing sense of dread, he realised it was coming from her building.  
Quickly he pulled out his phone and dialled her number but it immediately went to voice mail, “Oh, god no. Not already” he whispered as he pulled up in front of the Barbara’s smoking, burning building. A crowd had gathered but fire crews weren’t here yet, so the blaze couldn’t be more than 5 minutes old.  
Ditching the car, he swept the crowds but saw no sign of her. His movement betrayed his panic as he ran into the building to check her apartment. Picking up speed as he sprinted past the disabled elevators, he made for the stairwell up to Barbara’s apartment.  
He slammed into the stairwell door and blew it open with a bang, but Allen froze as he was confronted with a grisly sight. The masked corpse of a man was lying shattered in a pool of its own blood in the centre of the space one floor down, Allan took this all in at a glance and his mind went into over drive. She’d been attacked but had fought them off, her foot must have caught the very edge of the blood as it had a trail of footprints leading away from it that could only be hers, they dried up before the door but now Allen knew what he was dealing with.  
He ran down the stairs and straight into the heart of the inferno, seems the fire had started in the underground parking lot, if she had got out it hadn’t been this way.   
“Think Ginger Think” he mumbled to himself slipping back into his code now that there was clear danger, “Alone, attacked your car destroyed. What would you do?”  
He chewed his lower lip as he ran the scenario through his mind “I’d steal one of the jackasses who attacked me’s cars and meet back up with the Sinners or a safe house” he concluded, The attackers had to have arrived somehow, Barbara would have made her get away in one of their cars   
The Ginger ran out the emergency exit and had his suspicions confirmed when he found 2 black and red muscle cars as well as skid marks were another had left at speed.  
“Good she got out, but where did she go?” looking at the road he saw no obvious path of destruction to follow like the Fake AH members sometimes left. With no way of tracking them he knew he had to call the Cheese Master.  
The Cheese Master was Los Santos’s best information dealer and in a city with as much crime as Los Santos secrets were a lucrative business and everyone gave him kickbacks for both their safe keeping and exposure. The most intriguing part of this was that he managed all this without anyone knowing who he was. As far as the criminals of Los Santos were concerned he was a voice on a phone that knew everything. The name Cheese Master only came from when Gavino had called him and gotten a drunken voice that just mumbled “I’m the Cheese Master”  
“Cheese Master I need to know what happened to a car that left the alley I’m standing in within the last 10 minutes” He demanded skipping all formalities in his need to find her, if the woman he loved died and he couldn’t save her, again, he had no idea what he’d do. The last time had nearly destroyed him  
“Ok pushy but its gonna cost you double for being rude, I’ve got it on surveillance camera footage from the store across the road, tracking it, looks like it was hit but an armoured truck at this intersection” he said sending The Ginger a GPS location.   
The Ginger felt his chest tighten at the news, “What happened to the person in the car? Is she ok?” he asked slightly panicked.  
“I see people coming out of the armoured truck and dragging two women from the wreckage into the back of the truck”  
“Wait, two women?” The Ginger asked confused  
“That’s right two, one blonde and one with purple hair, now that I look at them I think their Black and Yellow from team RWBY, Is that who you’re chasing? Eh lover boy?” a smile crept into his voice as he taunted the Ginger with his forbidden knowledge  
“That’s not important, where did the truck go?” The Ginger asked jaw tensing to know that the Cheesemaster knew about him and Barbara  
“It just pulled into an alley now, sending you the coordinates”   
The Ginger watched as a location flashed up on his phone and he began sprinting back towards his car through the flames that had now reached the lobby “Thanks, send me the bill anytime” he finished before hanging up, leaping into the driver’s seat and heading for the alley like a man possessed  
The Ginger made all haste to the alley cursing that he hadn’t brought a weapon but he had brought big sedan that couldn’t weave through traffic or go off road like one of his super cars or bikes, so it was that by the time he pulled up and leapt out of the car, unarmed, the scene before him nearly made his heart stop.  
Barbara was on her knees with her back towards him being held up by two thugs that also had their backs towards him, even from behind and from a distance he could tell she was badly hurt, her pyjamas were charred and torn, dirty with dry and stained by blood of various degrees of freshness, her right arm seemed to have gained a new joint between the elbow and the shoulder it was broken so bad and her head hung forward, unsupported leaving her normally lustrous blonde hair that was now streaked with grime and blood, to fall to the side exposing a black eye. In front of her stood two more of the thugs, one had a sword at his hip the other was pointing an SMG right at her face  
Time slowed, the world narrowed until it was only him, her and the gunman, he started running, breaking into a full sprint, the gunman’s lips were moving but he couldn’t hear any words, he couldn’t hear anything.   
He had covered half the distance between them in seconds when he saw the muscles moving in the back of the gunman’s hand, constricting as he got ready to pull the trigger. “NOOO” he cried as he closed the last few meters causing the thugs to jerk in acknowledgment of his presence. The gunman began to tilt the barrel up from Barbara towards him as the Swordsman began to draw his blade and the two other thugs dropped Barbara to go for shoulder holstered pistols.  
Experience told him that the thugs wouldn’t clear leather before he got to them, leaving just the Gunman and the Swordsman, He roughly barged past the two thugs and leapt over Barbara’s body to confront his adversaries, the gunman had almost brought the gun up and the swordsman still hadn’t cleared his sheath, giving him a choice  
Sword  
Gun  
Sword  
Gun  
...  
Gun  
He swooped on the Gunman in a rush, snapping his head back with an elbow before wrapping his arm around the thugs throat, choking him and forcing back his spine till his shoulders were parallel to the ground, with his other arm he pointed the SMG at the swordsman and mashed his victim’s finger into the trigger. The swordsman’s head disappeared splattering blood, brains and blonde hair all over the alley wall as the swarm of high velocity shells slammed into him.   
The Swordsman’s body began to fall the mostly drawn Katana falling from lifeless fingers. The Ginger quickly snapped the Gunman’s neck and tossed the body aside in the same motion while dropping the gun that was still entwined with the dead man’s fingers in favour of the sword that was falling handle towards him, catching it he pivoted and decapitated the thug on the left just as they brought their guns to bear, the one on the right got off a single wide shot before the blade swung down and took his hand at the wrist. He stared dumbly at the stump where his hard had been a moment ago, before The Ginger drove the pommel of the stolen blade into his temple knocking him unconscious  
“Barbara” Discarding the stolen blade he rushed to where she had been dropped unmoving, he gave her a quick once over, definitely broken ribs and right arm, extensive soft tissue damage and probable internal bleeding, it was bad he had to get her to a hospital.  
“Ginger” the soft wheeze was barley louder than a breath but it got his attention, he saw her trying to speak and her eyes were moving rapidly behind their lids  
“I’m here Babs, try not to move they hurt you bad, you need to save your strength”  
At that moment her eyes flew open and her left hand snaked out to grab him in an iron grip and drag him closer  
“They took Meg. You have to get her back” she croaked before relaxing back into unconsciousness with a final weak “for... me”  
“I will” he promised his once dead heart breaking at the sight of seeing her so usually bright and full of life being brought so low “but first I have to save you”  
Glancing around he made a quick evaluation of the situation. Her injuries were too expensive for him to deal with himself, she was going to need the hospital, fuck the awkward questions and risks involved, if she died nothing else would matter, he couldn’t lose another one, not again.  
So the question became how to get her there, the fastest way would be in his car but that would risk worsening any potential spinal injury she had, no he would have to call an Ambulance and deal with any complications that happened when they saw the crime scene.  
Without a moments more hesitation he whipped out his phone and dialled 911  
“911 what’s your emergency?”  
“Help please you’ve gotta come quickly, my wife and I got caught in the middle of a gang attack, she’s hurt so bad” he started to sob into the phone “She’s gonna die if you’re not quick”  
“Calm down sir, where are you”  
He gave the 911 operator their location and answered a few more questions before being assured that police and ambulances were on their way. Brushing away his tears he returned his phone to his pocket. The one good thing about being emotionally dead is that you learn to fake emotions to the point of being a convincing actor, it also didn’t hurt that every time he glanced at Barbara’s barley moving body he felt like he was going into a nose dive  
Before long he heard the sirens and stopped tending to the crime scene and slipped back into the role of the grieving, distraught husband, head down at her side crying and mumbling almost incoherently. He’d seen enough violence, torn apart enough families to know how someone normal reacted to their partner being near dead in front of them  
“Sir we need you to give her some space” one of the paramedics said dragging him away by the shoulders as the rest descended on her in a way that reminded the Ginger eerily of Vultures.  
“Sir I need to ask you a few questions” Demanded the same Paramedic who had pulled him away  
“S..s.sure, anything to help” he false stumbled  
“What’s your name?”  
“Steve Richardson” he lied  
“and your wife?”  
“Wendy Richardson”  
“What happened here?”  
“We were just walking home, minding our own business when those guys over their pulled guns on us, they... they ... they demanded our money, we gave it to them but they said it wasn’t enough, they started hitting her, then these other guys pulled up. I.I.I recognised them from the news they were Fake AH, then there was yelling, shooting it was all so chaotic I couldn’t keep track. I thought I was going to die, we were both going to die. Then it was over, they got back in their car and left, that’s when I called you” he finished at the same time the rest of the Paramedics were ready to load her into the Ambulance  
“Fake AH? This is bloody enough to be them, you’re lucky to be alive not many survive a run in with them, looks like we’re all set you can ride in the ambulance we’ll get to the rest of the questions later”  
Climbing into the back of the ambulance, the next hour passed in a blur The Ginger struggled to hold it together, he hated the fact that he was so powerless as someone he cared about struggled for life just feet away what kept him together was planning the next step. So when she was rushed into surgery and he was left waiting he found a quiet spot and made the call.  
“Hey Ginger, what’s up?” Asked Lindsey “Wanna hit up a bar?”  
“Red, I need you to get White and meet me at the hospital; it’s about Black and yellow”  
“What happened? What did you do?” she demanded her tone severe now that he was using code names  
“Get white and come to the hospital, I’ll explain it to both of you when you get here, now hurry. Time is a factor” With that he hung up and collapsed back into the waiting room chair to prepare what he was going to say

*20 minutes later*

“Ok Ginger WTF is going on , Where’s Black and Yellow?” Red demanded as soon as they arrived  
“Sit down, this is gonna be a long one” He then proceeded to explain everything he had seen and deducted since going to Barbara’s apartment. A few times other patients and loved ones would enter the waiting room but three murderous stares were enough to prevent anyone from settling until the story ended  
“Shit, so Yellow’s in there?” White asked gesturing towards the surgery doors  
“Yeah, The doctors say she should live, thank god for Los Santos’s fucked up medical system” The Ginger answered remembering that out of necessity Medicine in Los Santos had developed to the point that unless you were dead on arrival they could save pretty much anyone.  
“So who are these black white and red guys?, How did they know where Yellow lived?, Where’s Black? And what’s our play?” asked Red trying to use business to compartmentalise the horror of what she just heard  
“No idea who they are, no Idea where they’re from, got a lead on where Black is, and Our play is that you two stay here while I go get black back.” The Ginger responded  
“FUCK OFF, no way we’re gonna just sit here with our thumbs up our asses while you go off and play the hero, we’re coming with you, or do you think a pair of little girls can’t hack it?” Red countered getting in his face to spite their height difference  
“Yeah, big man just because we’re women we can’t fight?” Continued white, her despair turning to rage” Fuck you, how do we know you’re not in on it hmmmm? You could be using this chance to slink away back to the Sinners who really have Black you little pricked...”  
“ENOUGH” The Ginger roared to cut over Whites tirade before continuing in a softer voice “I know you can fight, I trained you myself, that’s exactly why I need you two to stay here. These guys are well organised, well informed and dangerous, also think about it they attacked Yellow in her HOME, they don’t play by the rules no safe zones and they were trying to KILL her, there’s a good chance they’ll try to finish the job so I need you two to look after her”  
“So why don’t you stay here and we’ll go after Black?” countered Red  
“Because think about it, they knew where Yellow lived but they abducted Black meaning Black was the target they were looking for and must of known she would be at Yellows at the time of the attack. If they know that then they probably know as much about all of RWBY, where you live, your schedule, how you fight, that’s why it has to be me. They won’t be expecting it.” Hesaid using the half truth to try and convince them   
“That’s a lot of assumptions” red pouted, arms crossed  
“You want the truth? Fine, the truth is this is going to be a very dangerous rescue operation; chances are whoever does it won’t come out the other side alive. That’s why it has to be me, I’m expendable, I don’t care if I die but I can’t lose my friends. Besides there’s no Ginger in RWBY and Yellow told me to get her back, through all the pain and confusion the ONLY thing she said was for me to get Black back. I have to do it” the words left the Ginger in a torrent, desperation to convince to two women to stay causing him to spurt the truth like a fire hose   
The women were silent for a moment, rocked back in their chairs by what they had just heard.  
“Ginger... I” White began softly but the Ginger cut her off “Look thats the truth ok, so will you tell me you’ll stay so I can go get Black back?”  
“Do you have to go alone?” asked Red as ever using business as a crutch “Isn’t there someone you can take with you?”  
“The Sinners won’t go save a rival gang member, they’d probably stop me trying and any other Merc in the city would just slow me down, I’m gonna have to move fast if I’m to get her out AND stay alive”  
“What about Fake AH? Their good enough”  
“Doubt they’d help, same reason as the sinners”  
“WAIT, Blacks boyfriend” White shot to her feet in excitement as she said “He can help you”  
“I already said some punk would just slow me down...” he began  
“No, her boyfriend. He’s part of Fake AH” white continued  
The Ginger stared at her hard for a moment, as all the little puzzle pieces fell together. Their sudden emergence, decent backing, how willing Fake AH were to just roll over and give them a piece of the action that the Sinners had nearly destroyed both of them to obtain, it was all consistent with them having the help of a high roller like a Fake AH member  
“Ok, make the call, bring him up to speed and tell him to meet me in the construction site on Alta Street; I’ve got some things to collect first”  
He turned to leave but as he did he heard Red softly whisper “Ginger”.  
“What?” he asked turning back to look at where she was sitting  
“You’re willing to die for us, and really I know next to nothing about you, you name? Where you’re from? Why your so willing to do all this? Thank you Ginger... for everything”  
“Save it, Thank me when we’re all sitting back having a beer, Yellow and Black included” The bravado was false but neither questioned it, they both wanted to believe in the lie so they let it hang until just before he stopped out the door “And the names Allen” with that he disappeared into the night and off to war

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its back from the dead. YAY. will be more consistent writing chapter from now on hopeful.


	12. The Vagabound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A drive, some questions answered and more raised

Allen coasted into the darkness for the construction site in the same black BMW he’d been driving earlier, outside the sun was setting bathing the city in a brilliant orange twilight, but under the girders shadows pooled leaving strips of light over the dusty floor.  
He rolled to a stop and got out, he’d been back to his apartment and was looking every inch of the infamous criminal Lord Ginger, bright Orange pants, white T-shirt mostly hidden by body armour, a leather jacket with more armour sown into it, his monstrous black pistol was holstered under his arm and his trademark spiky orange hair and aviators. Fuck subtlety he wanted these pricks to know exactly who was killing them.  
Behind those Aviators his hud was sweeping the area coming back with a single person, a bright red circle glowed on his minimap, drawing his eyes to a pillar a few meters away where the shadows darkness was deepest, so dark he could barely make out the outline of the Fake AH crew member lurking there  
“I know your there, come on out so we can do this thing” he called to the silhouette   
The figure stirred and slowly strode into view. Blue jeans, a black and blue jacket but above it all the calling card of los Santos’s most feared and mysterious crime lord, the grey skull mask of the Vagabound, the same Vagabound who should be dead  
The Gingers reaction was instant, the same primal instinct that causes prey to fight or flee compelled him to draw his pistol but he hadn’t cleared leather before the Vagabounds hand was on his wrist stopping him from finishing the draw. Letting go the Ginger allowed the pistol to fall, drawn down by the heavier grip and chamber into his other hand before bringing it to rest under the Vagabounds chin, at the same moment he felt the cool circle of the Vagabounds own barrel coming to rest against his temple  
The two stood that way for several moments, faces inches apart, looking each other over, evaluating and glaring, their eyes a steely green and frosty blue locked even through the mask and glasses before the Vagabound slowly withdrew his weapon with a mumbling of “guess I’ll be the bigger man”  
The Ginger holstered his weapon as well and took a step back to better inspect the dead man in front of him. At 6 foot tall he was a little shorter than the Ginger but still cut an impressive figure with broad shoulders and a solid build, his look hadn’t seemed to have changed in the last two years and since they had only ever seen each other before down the barrels of their guns he couldn’t vouch for any major differences. It was like he had step through a portal from two years ago to appear here now  
“You should be dead” He stated simply   
“Well, I’m not” came the equally blunt reply  
“How? How are you alive?”   
“I’ll tell you that later but right now we’ve gotta get Meg back”  
That brought the Ginger back to the present and the reason they were here in the first place, Meg had been taken and it was up to them to get her back. He realised that that also meant that sweet little Meg was dating The Vagabound the most ruthless and psychotic member of the Fake AH crew, that just raised further questions for later  
“Your right, doesn’t matter how your alive only that you’ll have my back when we go to get her” he sighed and looked up into the Vagabounds eyes “You know I’m actually relieved, for a minute there I was worried I’d have to drag Gavino with me”  
The Ginger couldn’t see his face but there was a smile in his reply “For something like this Gavino is about as useful as a sand paper condom. But seriously down to Business, Red said you had a way to find her. How?”  
The Ginger smiled and walked over to the trunk of his car “Something else you can help me with considering your talents, here I got you a present. Call it a gesture of good will”  
Opening the boot he dragged out the thug from the alley whose hand he’d cut off. The stump was bandaged in rags but the man still looked pale and sickly as the Ginger threw him to the ground at the Vagabounds feet  
“This is one of the bastards who grabbed Black and tried to kill Yellow, He’ll know where she is so make him talk.”  
The Vagabound stooped down and dragged the man up by his scruff as if he weighed nothing “So this is one of the guys who crashed into her, Oh I won’t make him talk... I’ll make him sing”  
The Ginger suppressed a shudder calm voice devoid of any emotion save a little amusement, he’d heard it before when the Vagabound had been promising his crew a slow death and it still had a way of tapping into the primal part of the animal brain, screaming to get away from his predator.  
Still he stood there as the Vagabound went to work on the poor bastard to find out what happened to Meg, in the end it took less than 5 minutes before he had what he wanted and allowed the man to expire before walking up to the Ginger wiping his hands on a torn piece of shirt with an address.  
“That’s about ten minutes from here” The Ginger responded “we should take your car the one I brought is shit for this kinda work”  
He went to move past him but the Vagabound caught his arm and spun him back around so they were facing each other.  
“Listen Ginger, what we’re doing hasn’t been done before. Our crews have never worked together before and I don’t know how it works in the Sinners but in Fake AH we work so well together because we trust each other. I can do what I have to safe in the knowledge that everyone around me is doing their job too and that’s how we cover each other. Now I’ve seen you fight so I know you’ve got the skill what we need is to trust each other. Soooo...” Reaching up to the back of his head he slowly pulled off his famous mask to reveal the face beneath  
Brown hair, strong jaw, piercing blue eyes with a scar above the left brow and full lips he could have been a model for rugged men’s wear or a handsome father of two. Whatever the Ginger had been expecting it hadn’t been this, so when he offered a hand to shake and said “James Haywood but most people call me Ryan” that he just stared at the hand and considered his next move  
Slowly he reached up and removed his glasses so they were finally looking eye to eye before taking the offered had and answering “Allen...” he paused, unsure how to continue it only just occurring to him he no longer remembered his own last name  
“Allen...?” Prompted Ryan  
“Just Allen, you know like Cher or Prince”  
“Ok then “Just Allen” let’s go get my Meg back” he turned away and led them back into the shadows where a Black Zentorno lay cloaked in the darkness   
“Oh man is this the same one that Dojoguy and I blew up?”  
“Yes” replied Ryan his voice low and dangerous “and if you want this partnership to work I suggest you don’t bring that up again”  
“Comprende” Allen agreed as he lowered himself into the plush leather seats “So we’ve got a bit of a drive ahead of us, how about you tell us about how you’re not dead? Also how you and Meg became a thing?”  
Ryan sighed before turning to look at him “Since we’re trying to trust each other I’ll tell you, but we may get there before the end”  
“Cool, deal so which one first?”  
“That’s the thing they’re the same story...”

 

Maze Bank: 2 years ago  
“Vagabond, VAGA... RYAN COME BACK”   
Ryan clenched his jaw and ignored the cries of his boss and his friend, he waded into the on rushing sea of police and army firing at head height, his MG was no precision weapon but with this many targets he didn’t need to aim at all, there was simply too many enemies to miss.  
Dimly he felt their return fire, thudding into the armour on his chest, a few more scraped along his skull mask but unlike the ammo carried by the sinners these simply skipped off the platting imbedded behind the rubber, he also felt bullets distantly tearing through the meat of his calf and shoulder but he wasn’t fazed, his world had narrowed to just the tank in front of him, the one that threatened the survival of his boss and crew and if it was the last thing he ever did, the Vagabound was going to take it out.  
Step by step juddering under the recoil of his own gun he made his way to the tank. He could see the barrel trying to turn, to face him but he could tell it was moving to slow, he was already to close, stepping over and on the corpses of the men he’d killed as he finally reached the tanks armoured skirts  
Hand over hand he half climbed/ half crawled up onto the tank, abandoning his Mg to use both hands until the surface became level enough to stand and draw a grenade. The command hatch of the tank swung open revealing a young man with a helmet and visor covering most of his face but his mouth handing open in dumb surprise as he stared up at him  
Behind his mask he smiled, what must he look like to this naive kid? Towering over him, his skull mask leaking blood from its right eye from the graze the sinners bullet left above his brow, he was also coated in a good amount of blood from his other wounds and the spray off the men he’d killed, with the gun smoke curling up behind him like a pair of ashen wing he must of appeared as a primitive avatar of death, which was fitting as for this man he was  
He drove his heel in to the jaw of the man and he collapsed back into the dark interior of the tank, for a brief moment he saw several other pale faces staring up at him in slack jawed horror before he tossed the grenade in and slammed the hatch closed, placing his foot on it for good measure as he felt a scrabble to force it open  
In mere moments there was a muffled explosion and the hatch was thrown up so hard it took all his strength to keep it closed, it was only then with the tank finished that reality snapped back into focus and he took in the scene around him. He was completely surrounded and still being shot. He was hit in over a dozen places and 5 of them had missed the armour. He looked over at where Mogar and the Boss had been and saw them still standing there, the boss had his hand out stretched towards him as if he could pull Ryan from the jaws of death by will alone.  
With a satisfied “Hmph” he turned his head from them, they’d be fine, he bought enough time for them to escapes with his suicidal charge, they’d make it even if he didn’t and in Ryans mind that was a fair trade, he was a monster who stalked the night like an old legend come to life, he had nothing to give and nothing to lose. The boss on the other hand had a wife and daughter and Mogar had his whole life ahead of him, he’d find a good woman if Gavino didn’t snatch him up first  
No this was the right choice in Ryans mind. So went he turned his head and saw the second tank aiming at him with its barrel raised and ready to fire he felt no fear or panic, he only weirdly became acutely aware of how the perspiration from his breath made the rubber of his mask stuck around his mouth and he really should have added more padding. Then his world came apart at the seams in sound and fury.

Pain greeted him as he awoke, he felt like he’d jumped out of a plane and waited to long to pull his chute, he felt like he’d been entirely tenderised and a weight was crushing him down into the damp copper smelling concrete  
With a his lungs crushed and hands clumsy from shock he pushed at the weight but blood loss had drained most of his strength making the normally easy weight a true strain before he was able to create enough room to wiggle out into the light.  
Shaking his head he took in the scene, he was in the alley to the side of the bank, fires raged inside the building as the remains of the tank burned in a roaring inferno, slowly his memory pieced together, He remembered seeing the second tank fire, the shell sailing through the air to slam into the rear of the tank he was standing on, the titanic explosion as 62 tons of war machine were unmade under his feet, the piece of armour he was standing on launching in nearly one piece away from the explosion, flying through the air sailing through a frozen storm of broken glass before slamming into the wall of the neighbouring building with bone breaking force and finally hitting the ground before the piece of armour that had saved his life landed on top of him and would of crushed his skull if not for his masks inbuilt moulded plates  
Struggling to his feet he staggered down the alley, his heart hammering in his chest as his clumsy feet struggled to carry him forward, leaving a long blood smear on the wall he was dragging along for support as he hobbled away from the sound of sirens.  
“Got to disappear” he thought as his foot scraped though broken glass.  
“Have to lose the mask... become anonymous... then find the others” his thoughts were becoming fuzzier as the blood poured out of him. Beginning to pool on his clothes and at his feet, Dimly he was aware that this must be what bleeding to death feels like as he fumbled trying to take of his mask with numb fingers like unformed clay.  
Eventually he managed to drag it off and tossed it into one of the nearby fires caused by the tanks explosion, he quickly added his jacket to the mixed and watched for a few moments as the Vagabound burned, feeling his heart beat begin to slow, before Ryan turned and struggled towards the street.  
He could feel himself dying; his vision was dimming, his pulse growing ever weaker, it wasn’t all that painful, it felt like his whole body had gone numb and tingly, like he had slept on it weird and woken up with it pins and needles. He was being driven forward by sheer will power but then as he reached the footpath where there were still people screaming and running the willpower wasn’t enough to overcome to demands of the flesh. Like a marionette with its strings severed he fell forward collapsing onto the ground watching a pool of his own blood spread out from him with his graying vision  
“Is this what I did to all those people? Is this death?”  
Even his thoughts were growing fainter as a shadow fell across him. It took the last of his strength to roll his eyes to look up at what had blocked out the sun, preventing him from at least dying with the sun on his face, all he got was an impression of perfect red lips and a flash of purple before the black rushed in and he knew no more.

“It was her who took me to the hospital, gave me an alibi, and came to visit me while I healed. She saved my life, so when I was all fixed up I asked her out.” Ryan said with a smile “Best decision I ever made”  
“So you and Meg ha. How’d that go over with the rest of fake AH?”  
“Surprisingly well, they were mostly happy to see me happy, although... Gavino though she was a “fit bird” and wanted to turn our relationship into a competition”  
Allen chuckled “I bet that ended well for him”  
Ryan grinned at the memory as he said “Well I had been planning to have a talk with him about it, on top of maze bank, while I was holding him over the edge by his ankles, but Meg beat me too it, she kicked his ass and told him she wasn’t some trophy to be won and that she had bad her choice”  
Allen barked a laugh “Meg kicked his ass? But she’s so sweet? She won’t even use a gun”  
“Oh she can handle herself better than any of us, and to be fair Gavino is REALLY annoying”  
“Anyway how come you never reemerged back with Fake Ah? Having the legendary Vagabound back from the dead sure would of put the scare in a hell of allot of people”  
“I did go back but the boss decided it was better I play dead and go on a murder break, in case you and your “Sinners” ever started acting up again having our resident maniac back would help to settle you down. Besides” he took his eyes off the road to look Allan in the face “I almost died, I felt myself bleeding to death, something about that and meeting Meg changed me, the desire to kill had been pushed down, replaced with a love for that bright and bubbly woman who saved my life, Hell sometimes I considered making the murder break permanent and retiring...”  
“Are you sure you’re up to this?” Allan asked thinking about the complications that could arise if Ryan lost his edge in the middle of a fight “you can stay in the car while I get her if you don’t have the stomach for a fight”  
Ryan chuckled before answering “These pricks come into my city, attack my friends and kidnap my love, oh you don’t need to worry about my willingness to fight, this murder break has gone on for far too long, its time this city knew The Vagabound is back, and I’ll paint the message in these assholes blood”  
By the time Ryan had finished his little speech his voice had settled back into the unnerving and dangerous calm that The Vagabound had been so known and feared for, and now Allen was starting to feel it too. It was so long since he last fully let go and gave into the bloodletting. At the Mod den he’d needed them alive, at maze bank he’d been looking to make a deal but this time there were only two people in the whole place he had to worry about not killing. The thought made his fingers twitch and the corners of his mouth curl into a smile. It was time to show these punks what Los Santos A list could do, and why he was LORD Ginger  
“We’re here” Ryan said as he pulled up outside the hotel “What’s the plan?”  
“Well they’ll be expecting an attack from Red and White, not us and since their expecting two people who aren’t stupid they’ll be expecting a covert entry and thus have the majority of their forces covering all other entrances, so I say we walk in the front door and show them exactly who their dealing with  
Ryan thought for a moment “That’s not a bad idea, and it’ll make a good story to tell the guys, two knights charging the front gates? Sounds like something out of a fairy tail. So let’s do it. You ready?”  
“Fucking oath I am”  
Before exiting the car Ryan pulled on his mask and Allen put on his glasses, then together The Vagabound and Lord Ginger got out of the car and approached the hotels front doors with all the lethal swagger they possessed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the big reveal that was completely spoiled by the tags, Hope your ready for some over the top violence next time


End file.
